Bonding Before Christmas
by MoxiesdenLovesShandy
Summary: It's getting close to Christmas. Sharon and Andy are both looking forward to spending their first Christmas together as a married couple. Matthew has questions about Santa and a new case gets thrown their way.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone! Here is the next story, continuing about a week after Firebug ended. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 1

It was a slow day at the office for the Major Crimes team. Julio and Amy brought the Christmas decoration boxes up from the storage closet and placed them on the desks. Everyone was helping out decorating the Murder Room to look festive for the holidays. Sharon was in her office looking over some paperwork regarding the new chief's position. She was happy staying where she was at and didn't want to move up but Chief of Police Pope insisted, at his last meeting, that she put her name in the pool for the job. She and Andy had discussed it several times over the past months and she told him that she didn't want the job. He understood and supported her decision. Now, a couple of months later, she was staring at the paperwork, wondering what she was going to do.

She took a break and looked out her office windows to the scene unfolding in the Murder Room. Her team was putting up decorations. The Christmas tree was already up thanks to Mike and Andy putting it together. Amy was currently decorating it with ornaments. They had placed one of Sharon's angels that she had brought in a couple of years ago on the top of the tree. The office was starting to look very festive. Sharon decided to join in the decorating and walked out of her office. She walked up to join Provenza who was 'overseeing' everyone put up the decorations. He was sitting back at his desk enjoying giving orders to everyone on where certain decorations should go. "Lieutenant, you are certainly in the Christmas spirit" Sharon said to Provenza as she walked to his desk and noticed him wearing a Santa's hat already. "Yes Captain, well it is the season to be jolly and I figured why not" Provenza said to Sharon and then he barked out an order to Andy and Mike. "No! That sign does not belong there, hang it over on that wall" he said pointing to the wall behind Mike's desk. Andy just gave him a look and shook his head as he and Mike walked over to the wall Provenza pointed to. Andy looked at Sharon and smiled at her as they were walking. Sharon giggled and smiled back at him.

After the team decorated the whole office, including the electronics room and the new video room, Sharon told everyone that they could leave since nothing else was going on for the day. Everybody packed up their things and started to head out. "See you guys tomorrow" Andy said to them as he waved. "Good night Lieutenant" Julio said as he walked out the door. Andy sat back down in his chair and waited for Sharon to be ready to leave. It was three weeks till Christmas and he decided to look at his list of gifts on his phone. He wrote down everyone's names that he was buying for and what he had got them for Christmas. They were hosting Christmas this year at the new house and everyone was getting excited to come over. Emily had called him earlier and had said that she was able to get some time off from the ballet to come home for Christmas. Sharon was happy about that and couldn't wait to see her daughter. Ricky was driving down a couple of days before Christmas to spend some time with them. Andy had hoped they didn't catch a case this year around Christmas because he wanted Sharon to be able to spend time with her kids. This was also going to be Matthew's first Christmas with them as a foster child.

Andy thought back to his and Matthew's conversation one week after Thanksgiving. _"So Matthew, what are you going to ask Santa for Christmas this year?" Andy had asked him as they were sitting at the kitchen table. Andy was going over some of the homework that Matthew had. Matthew just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know" he said to Andy. Matthew continued to do his homework as Andy watched him. This kid had a hard couple of months with his mother being killed and then Sharon and Andy fostering him. Andy wanted to make sure that Matthew knew he was loved now, so later on at night he and Sharon had talked about it and they both agreed that they wanted to make this Christmas special for Matthew._ Sharon opened her office door and Andy stood up, placing his phone in his pocket. "Are you all set?" he asked her as she walked out of the office with her jacket and bag. "Yes, let's go pick up Matthew and Moxie and head home" Sharon said as she touched his tie and smoothed it down before walking out of the Murder Room together.

They decided to pick Moxie up first and then headed over to Matthew's school to pick him up from after school care. Sharon went inside the school to get him while Andy stayed in the car with the dog. He was tired, even though they didn't really do anything at the office today, or the past week. It had been very slow. Andy had gone to see his doctor yesterday for his monthly check-up and everything looked good. Sharon was pleased with the results from the doctor and they celebrated that night when they had gotten home. Andy grinned at the memory and then the car door opened and Matthew got in the back and settled in. "Hi" he said to Andy and Moxie. "How was your day at school?" Andy asked Matthew as Sharon got in the front seat. "It was okay" Matthew said. Andy looked at Sharon who had a worried look on her face. "We'll talk later about it" she said to him quietly. "Okay" Andy said to her and they drove home.

They got home and entered their house through the back door. Andy had turned off the alarm system before they had entered and Sharon went in to the kitchen to start on dinner. Matthew ran inside with Moxie, dropping his backpack off in the mud room before running through the house. "Wash your hands, Matthew!" Sharon said as he ran past her and then stopped at the first floor bathroom. Andy followed Sharon in to the kitchen. "What are we going to have tonight?" he said to her as she was washing some vegetables. "I thought we would have a little stir fry with some wheat noodles and some chicken" Sharon said to him as he came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her waist. Andy brushed Sharon's hair away from her neck with his nose and began kissing her there. He looked at her stitches that were healing nicely and just a faint scar remained. He kissed her on her scar. Sharon hummed. "What did you want to tell me when we picked Matthew up from school?" Andy asked her as he continued to kiss her neck. He was trying to distract her, but Sharon wasn't going to let that happen. "The teacher told me that he got into an argument with another kid in the class and that he had to go sit in the principal's office for lunch and recess" Sharon explained to him. "Just Matthew?" Andy asked her. "No, the other kid too" Sharon said. Andy looked back at her and nodded. "I'll ask him about it" he said to her. She continued to prepare dinner for them. "Is Rusty joining us for dinner?" Andy asked her. "He texted me saying that he was running late, but that he would join us when he got home" Sharon said as she started to cook everything. Andy let her go and walked towards the hallway to see where Matthew went.

Andy found him and Moxie in the family room watching a Star Wars cartoon on the TV. Andy sat down next to Matthew on the couch and started watching the cartoon with him. Andy followed it a little bit from his step-grandsons so he sort of knew what Matthew was explaining to him when he asked what was happening on the cartoon. "Is Santa Claus real?" Matthew asked Andy innocently. Andy looked down at Matthew and smiled. "Of course he is real, why do you ask?" Andy said to Matthew. "Well, Jerry in my class was talking with Tommy and he told Tommy that Santa wasn't real and then I started arguing with him" Matthew started to explain as Andy listened to him. "My mom was always busy around Christmas time and I always thought Santa would help me" Matthew said quietly to Andy. "Well Matthew, I will tell you this. Santa Claus is real no matter what the kids at school might say" Andy said as Matthew was listening to him. "Have you ever spoken to Santa?" Andy asked him. Matthew shook his head no. "I'll tell you what, tomorrow night, if Sharon and I get out of work on time, I will take you to go talk to Santa Claus" Andy said to him. "How do you know where he will be?" Matthew asked. Andy chuckled a little bit. "Because I know Santa" Andy said to him and Matthew's face just dropped in amazement.

Matthew then got off the couch and hurried in to the kitchen to tell Sharon what Andy told him. Matthew saw her standing by the stove cooking. He walked over and sat himself on one of the stools. "Did you wash your hands?" Sharon asked him as she saw him enter and sit down. "Yes" he said and waited a bit before speaking again. "Did you know that Andy knows Santa Claus? And he is going to take me tomorrow night to go talk with him" Matthew said to Sharon and he seemed excited about it. "Oh really? I did not know he knew Santa Claus" Sharon said to Matthew and then looked at Andy as he joined them in the kitchen. Andy just shrugged his shoulders at Sharon. "What?" Andy said to Sharon. "Go grab a seat at the table, Matthew" Sharon said as dinner was almost done.

Rusty joined them for dinner and they all sat around the table eating and talking. "So, Rusty how was class today?" Sharon asked him as they ate. "Oh, um it was okay. There's this opportunity to go work with underprivileged kids in the area and help them out with school work. My professor thinks that would be a good fit for me, plus I can get credits to put towards law school" Rusty said to her. Both Sharon and Andy looked at each other. "So, are you going to do that?" Andy asked him as he took a sip of his water. "I don't really know yet. I'm taking a lot of courses right now to get prepared for law school and I'm just not really sure" Rusty said to them. Sharon looked disappointed and cleared her throat. "Rusty, I think that is a good opportunity for you and if your professor thinks so, then" Sharon started to say but Rusty interrupted her. "I know Mom, I know" Rusty said and then looked at his plate. Rusty then excused himself from the dinner table and went to his apartment above the garage. "The kid has a lot to think about, Sharon" Andy said to her as he got up and started to put things away. "Okay Matthew, I want you to start on your homework after the table is cleared" Sharon said as she brought the dishes to the sink. "Okay" Matthew said as he helped bring his dish to the sink.

After the table was cleared, Matthew brought his backpack and placed it on the table. "What homework do you have tonight?" Sharon said as she sat down next to Matthew. "Spelling and Math" Matthew said as he pulled out his spelling book and started on that. Andy was outside in the backyard with Moxie when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw that it was Provenza calling him. "Don't tell me we caught a case" he said as he answered the phone. "No, we didn't. Look, I don't know what to get Patrice for Christmas and I was wondering what you got the Captain" Provenza said. Andy pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the display. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Provenza?" Andy said into the phone. "Flynn, I'm being serious here" Provenza said to him. "Okay, okay, calm down" Andy said as he watched Moxie run around the yard. He turned around to make sure that Sharon was not in site and then he told his friend what he got her. "It's a Pandora bracelet that has these little charms you can customize to fit whoever you give it to" Andy said to him. "That's it?" Provenza asked. "No that's not all, there are some other things I got her but they're a surprise" Andy said to him. "A surprise, why can't I know?" Provenza questioned. "Because you have a big mouth and I don't want Sharon to know what I got her, okay." Andy said. "Well, thanks a lot Flynn. Listen I got to go, see you tomorrow" Provenza said and then he hung up. Andy looked down at his phone and shook his head. "Come on Moxie" he called to the dog and Moxie followed him back in the house.

Andy saw Sharon sitting at the kitchen table looking over Matthew's competed homework. "Where's Matthew?" Andy said as he walked over to her. "He went upstairs to put his pj's on" Sharon said as she was looking over the math problems. Andy just looked at her. She peaked up from her glasses and smiled. "Yes?" she said to him curiously. "Nothing, I'm going to make sure Matthew is okay" he said as he leaned down and pulled her into a kiss. "Maybe we could watch a movie later?" he whispered to her and she nodded back at him. He went upstairs to find Matthew and Sharon stayed in the kitchen, Moxie lying next to her.

By the time Andy went upstairs; Matthew was already changed into his pajamas and was brushing his teeth in his bathroom. "When you are done up here, go back downstairs so you can put your homework away" Andy said to Matthew and Matthew gave him a thumbs up. Andy then walked into the master bedroom and went over to the closet where he hid Sharon's gift. He took the bracelet out of the box and looked it over again with all the different charms he got her and then placed it back in the box. He knew she was going to love that. All of the charms represented something or someone in her life. He had also gotten her tickets to see Emily's ballet performance, not in New York City, but right here in LA. That was a surprise, Emily's ballet company was going to be traveling across the country and they would be in LA in January for three weeks. Emily had told Andy that in a text last week, but she wanted to surprise her mother. So as soon as Andy had heard about that, he immediately went online and got two tickets for them to go. The tickets were on his phone, easily hidden from Sharon.

Andy then heard feet running up the stairs and the dog following whoever he was chasing and he quickly put the gift away. Andy went back into the hallway and saw Matthew playing with Moxie, with Sharon following them upstairs. "Okay Matthew, time for bed" Sharon said to him. Matthew got up off of the floor and went into his room. Moxie followed him and so did Sharon. Matthew climbed into bed and Sharon sat next to his bed in a chair. "Can you tell me a story about Santa Claus?" Matthew asked her. Sharon nodded. "Okay Matthew" she said and waited for him to settle in. Andy was leaning against the door frame listening to Sharon tell Matthew the story. As Matthew's eyes were closing, Sharon slowly got up and turned the overhead light off, leaving the lamp by his bedside still on. Andy moved so that Sharon could close the door and then he gathered her in his arms and gave her a hug. "What's that for?" she asked as she pulled away and started to head back downstairs. "For being you, smart and sexy, and such a great storyteller" Andy said as he followed her downstairs.

"What movie do you want to watch tonight?" Andy said to her as they made their way into the family room. "Hmm, how about a romantic comedy" Sharon said to him as she sat down on the couch. Andy looked through all of the different movies they had and then found one that Sharon would like. He put _When Harry Met Sally_ into the Blu-ray player and joined her on the couch. The movie started to play. About halfway through the movie, both Sharon and Andy were lying on the couch, Sharon was on top of him, head on his chest as he lazily drew circles on her back. "Are you still awake?" he whispered to her. "Uh huh" she said as she was enjoying the movie and Andy. The movie was over and they were both asleep on the couch.

It was well after midnight when Andy's phone rang, waking him up from his slumber with Sharon still on top of him. He reached over to the coffee table to answer his phone, slightly moving Sharon and she woke up. "What is it?" she asked still sleepy. "My phone is ringing" Andy said back as he answered it. "Flynn" he said to the other person on the line. "Hey, sorry to wake you up but, we got multiple dead bodies at Union Station" Provenza said to Andy. Andy quickly got up from the couch. "What happened?" he said and that got Sharon's attention. Sharon got up and turned the TV off. If they were catching a case, she needed to have someone stay with Matthew while they went out. She picked up her phone and dialed Rusty's number, surprising he answered right away. Five minutes later, Rusty was in the house as Sharon and Andy gathered their things to leave for the roll out. "You sure you are going to be okay with this? You will probably be taking Matthew to school later on this morning" Sharon asked Rusty before they left. "Yes Mom, I can handle it" Rusty said as they left to head to the crime scene.

As they got in the car, Andy turned to Sharon in the passenger seat. She was busy looking at her phone at the message that Chief Howard had sent her regarding the crime scene they were heading to. She was responding back to the Chief, Andy decided what he had to say could wait and then they drove off to the crime scene. "Multiple bodies at the scene, what happened?" Sharon said to Andy as he drove to Union Station. She tucked her phone back into her pocket of her jacket and wondered what exactly her team was heading in to.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 2

Union Station, the main railway station in Los Angeles, was crawling with police personnel after midnight. Helicopters were flying overhead and the LAPD helicopters were trying to enforce a no fly zone over the area. As Provenza pulled up to the scene in his car, he looked at all of the activity that was happening about thirty feet in front of him. As he got out of the car, he stopped a patrol officer. "What's going on over there?" he asked the patrol officer. "Bomb squad, sir" the officer said to Provenza. "Ah" Provenza said and kept walking towards the crime tape area where Kendall and some of the Major Crimes team were located.

"What do we have here?" Provenza asked Kendall. "Multiple casualties, looks like cause of death was from the bomb blast" Kendall started to tell Provenza but then they were interrupted by the LAPD Bomb Squad coming into their area. "We need to clear this area, sir" one of the bomb squad officers said to Provenza. "Uh, why? I thought you guys already did this?" Provenza asked him. "We need to go over this area again" the officer said as he made Provenza leave the area along with Kendall, Mike, Julio, Amy, and Buzz. "Fine, fine. We'll just wait for Flynn and the Captain to get here" Provenza said as he and the team left the area and went to the safe zone that was established. "Just don't disturb the bodies or my evidence!" Provenza shouted back to the Bomb Squad.

Provenza turned around and saw the LAPD had already set up a command tent and it looked like Chief Howard was already inside there. "I filmed a little bit of the area, sir, before we had to move" Buzz said to Provenza. "Good, good Buzz, see if you can get some of the surveillance footage here, perhaps we can start with that instead" Provenza said to Buzz and Buzz went to go do that. "Mike, do we know anything yet? How many bodies there are or who's responsible for this?" Provenza asked Mike. "Not yet" Mike said as he watched the scene unfold behind them.

Just then, Andy and Sharon arrived at the scene and pulled their car in to the area. Before Sharon got out of the car, Andy placed his hand on her arm. "Sharon, wait" he said to her. Sharon looked back at him with a curious look. "What is it?" she asked him. Andy looked back at her. "Be careful" he said to her. This was the first case back for her after the whole debacle with Missy and Croelick. Andy wanted to make sure she was going to be okay out here. He didn't want to be too overprotective as Sharon was still the Captain and still in charge. Sharon nodded to Andy before she opened the door. "I'm fine Andy, really" Sharon said back to him and they both exited the car. Sharon and Andy joined Provenza and the rest of the group in the safe zone. "Lieutenant, what are we doing out here if the bodies are over there?" Sharon asked him. "Hello Captain, the illustrious LAPD Bomb Squad has decided to make sure that the area is clear, which they did before I even arrived, isn't that right Mike?" Provenza said to Sharon. "That's correct" Mike said as he was waiting patiently to go back to the scene. Provenza started walking with Sharon towards the command tent. "They've set up the command tent here, Captain, and I even saw Chief Howard was here" Provenza informed Sharon. "Yes, he texted me on our way over here" Sharon said back to him. "Did Kendall say anything about the bodies or do we know anything about the blast or the victims?" Sharon asked Provenza. "No, not yet Captain" Provenza said back to her. She nodded. "Okay, I'm going to go speak with Chief Howard, excuse me" Sharon said and then she walked over to the command tent.

"Everything okay with her?" Provenza asked Andy. "Well, let's see. Quiet evening gets interrupted by a bomb blast that kills several people and we get called out in the middle of the night for it" Andy started to say to Provenza but Provenza quickly stopped him. "Okay, okay" he said to Andy as he put up his hand, gesturing him to stop. "Ye gods" Provenza said as he and Andy walked back to join the group. Minutes later, the LAPD Bomb Squad gave the all clear so everyone returned to the murder scene. Andy looked back at the command tent and saw Sharon speaking with Chief Howard. He then turned around and caught up to Provenza. "Okay Kendall, now let's see what you've got" Provenza asked Kendall. "Okay, from what I can tell with how the blast happened, I would say this is your main guy. Body badly burned from the blast of the bomb" Kendall said to Provenza. "Looks like this guy here was wearing a janitor's uniform" Julio pointed out to them. "It looks like he is wearing something underneath that uniform" Andy said to the group. Julio took a closer look at the body. "It looks like it was a business suit, sir" Julio said back to Andy and the rest of the group.

In the command tent, Sharon sees Chief Howard and walks over to where he is standing in front of the monitors. "I want to see the surveillance cameras from the area. I want to know who was in the locker area and why" Chief Howard said to the officer as he looked up to see Sharon walking into the tent. "Chief" Sharon said as she approached him. "Captain, looks like Major Crimes is going to be handling this case" Chief Howard said to her. "We are going to leave the FBI out of this?" Sharon asked him. "Yes, until your team rules it as terrorism, I don't want the FBI involved" Chief Howard said. Sharon gave him a look. "That's a little odd coming from you, Chief" Sharon said as she started walking with him. "Yeah, well let's just say the bureau has their hands full on other things. I want to give us every opportunity we need to solve this, Captain" Chief Howard said back to her as they stopped in front of a map of Union Station. "Are you going to talk to the press about this, Chief?" Sharon asked him. "I'm going to keep this as quiet as I can to give you enough time to do your investigation Captain" Chief Howard said. Sharon nodded to him and then headed back outside to join her team.

Back outside in the blast area, Amy and Julio were checking the bodies for any type of identification on them so that they could notify the victim's family members. As they were doing that, the bodies were being placed in body bags and were being sent to the morgue. Kendall approached Provenza and Andy who were standing overseeing everything. "Lieutenant, we are taking the bodies down to the morgue, Dr. Morales should be getting back to you within two hours I would say" Kendall said as he then walked with the bodies to the van for transportation. "So much for another quiet day" Provenza said to Andy as he looked over the sight in front of him. Andy looked over everything that was in front of him. Buzz came back with the surveillance videos. "Sir, I have the videos you requested. Chief Howard also requested them, but I managed to convince Amtrak to give them to me instead" Buzz said to Provenza. "Okay, Buzz. I need you to start filming everything again" Provenza said to him pointing in the direction of the blast. "Yes Sir" Buzz said as he grabbed his camera and followed Andy around, filming everything.

Sharon joined Provenza at the area. "So, Lieutenant do we know anything yet?" Sharon asked Provenza. "Yes, Captain. We do know that it appears one person was right in front of the locker that went off. His body was badly burned but he was wearing a janitor's uniform over a business suit" Provenza started saying to Sharon. "That's odd" Sharon said back to him. She looked over the scene to find Andy but she couldn't see him. Amy and Julio started walking towards them and they had IDs for every body that was at the scene. "We ID'd all of the victims except for the main guy, Captain" Amy said to Sharon. Sharon nodded as she took the piece of paper from Amy's hand. "They're all local" Amy added. Sharon looked at the paper and then looked back up at Amy, Julio, and Provenza. "Give this list to Chief Howard, he will do the notifications to the families" Sharon said as she handed the paper back to Amy. Amy then left the group. Sharon was still looking to see where Andy was at. "Kendall said give Dr. Morales about two hours for him to be ready" Provenza told Sharon. She nodded and walked over to the main blast area and shook her head. 'What happened here?' she thought to herself. Sharon saw Mike measuring the blast point and writing some notes down with the help of Julio but still no sign of where Andy had gone to.

Sharon turned around with almost a panic expression on her face but before she could ask Provenza where Andy was at, she heard his voice coming from behind her. She turned around and saw Andy walking with Buzz through the rubble. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him. Andy walked up to her as he and Buzz were finished filming the area. "You okay?" he asked her with a concerned look on his face. Sharon cleared her throat. "Yes" she said quietly and then turned around to face the rest of her team. "Okay, let's head back to the office and figure out what exactly happened here and why" Sharon said to them and then started walking back to the car with Andy.

Sharon glanced at her watch. It was now 2:25 in the morning. "Hopefully Rusty and Matthew are still sleeping" Sharon said to Andy to break the silence in the car. "I'm sure they are" Andy said and paused for a minute before speaking again. "Everything okay back there?" Andy said to her as he pulled into the parking garage and then pulled into his spot. Sharon paused for a moment before answering him. Why did she panic back at the crime scene? Andy looked at her and placed his hand on top of her. She took a deep breath. "I guess I panicked back there when I didn't know where you were" Sharon said to him. Andy looked at her and nodded slightly. "I knew, I just" Sharon didn't know what to say but then Andy squeezed her hand and she looked back at him. "It's okay, Sharon" he said to her. They both paused for a moment before exiting the vehicle. They headed towards the elevator to join everybody up in the Murder Room.

As they walked into the Murder Room, Julio was putting up the pictures of all of the victims except the main guy as they still don't know the identity of him yet. Sharon went straight to her office to put her things there before returning out to the room. "Do we know anything about the main guy that was hit?" Sharon asked her team. "No ma'am. We are still waiting for his fingerprints to come back as he did not have any kind of ID on him at the time of the blast" Julio said to Sharon as he sat back down at his desk. "Where are Buzz and Mike at?" Sharon asked. "They are setting things up in the video room" Provenza said to her as he was looking over a preliminary report from SID. Sharon walked up to him. "What's that you're reading?" she asked Provenza. "The prelim report from SID" Provenza said as he handed it to her. She leaned up against a desk and started to read it herself. "Captain, the video is ready for everyone to watch" Buzz said as he came back into the Murder Room. "Thank you Buzz" Sharon said as she stood back up and started walking over to the video room. Andy followed right next to her and when they entered the room, he held her chair out as she sat down. He took the seat next to her and Provenza sat across from them. Everyone else took their seats. "Are we ready?" Buzz asked. "We're ready" Sharon said and Buzz hit the play button.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thank you for the reviews on my latest story. I always appreciate them and they keep me writing more! Okay, on with chapter 3, enjoy!

Chapter 3

Everyone's eyes were glued to the video screen as the surveillance video played out. Buzz had started the video a half hour before the blast occurred. The area of the lockers in Union Station was well lit and the team saw many people walking in and out of the area. "Any one of these people could have set the bomb off" Amy said to the team as they looked at the video. The video continued to play and then the team saw the man dressed as a janitor walk into the locker area. "Buzz, pause it right there" Andy said to him and he did. The screen paused on the man. "Let's see what he does" Provenza said and then Buzz played the video at normal speed. The screen showed the man walking over to the locker and looking around. It was like he was making sure no one else saw what he was doing. In the next frame, there are more people heading in to the locker area. "Why is it so busy at 11:45 at night?" Buzz asked them. "Mike, can you pull up the train schedules for that time, I would like to know why as well" Sharon said to Mike. "I'll get on that right now, Captain" Mike said as he opened up his laptop and started typing.

A few frames later, the man wearing the janitor's uniform opens the locker and the blast happens. All you see on the screen is the explosion, then dust and smoke. As the smoke clears, you see the dead bodies of the people, including the man in the janitor's uniform. The sprinkler system kicks in and minutes later you see emergency personnel rushing into the scene. "Okay, stop it right there Buzz" Sharon said to him and he stopped the video. "We need to know who this guy was" Sharon said to everyone in the room. She thought for a second. "Buzz, do we have any surveillance footage from before the blast?" Sharon asked Buzz. "How far back, Captain?" he asked her as he looked through the video he had. "Yesterday morning?" Sharon said as she looked at Buzz and Buzz nodded. Everyone glanced up at Sharon. "What are you thinking?" Andy asked her. "I'm thinking that our janitor isn't who he appears to be," Sharon said back to him as she looked at the screen.

"Amy, I would like to know if any group has claimed responsibility for the blast" Sharon said to Amy. "Yes Captain" Amy said as she left the video room and headed back to her desk. "Julio, could you please find out what is taking so long with the subject's fingerprints" Sharon said to Julio. "Yes ma'am" Julio said as he got up from his chair and left the room. "Captain, the Gold Metro line that runs from East L.A up to Azusa runs pretty much late at night with trains stopping at Union Station 10:56, 11:16, and 11:36 PM. Now, you also have several bus companies arriving from various areas like Las Vegas, Oakland, San Fran and they arrive from 10:50 to 11:40 PM" Mike explained to Sharon and showed her the various timetables on his laptop. "And of course, you have many restaurants there that are open till midnight" Mike added. "Okay, I think we get the picture, Mike, ye gods!" Provenza said to him as he was getting annoyed. "It's too early for a lengthy explanation" Provenza said to Andy who just looked back at him. Provenza stood up. "Um, Captain, I'm going to go call Morales and see if he is ready yet, and if not I will light a fire under him" Provenza said to Sharon as he retreated back to his desk. Andy and Mike both looked at each other and Andy shook his head.

"Okay Captain, I found the footage you requested" Buzz said to Sharon. Sharon took her seat next to Andy again. "Okay Buzz, whenever you're ready" Sharon said and Buzz pressed the play button on the video. Sharon, Andy, and Mike were looking at the video and then they saw someone who looked familiar to them appear on the screen. "Hey Buzz, pause it right there" Andy said to Buzz and he did so. "Look, I think that's the janitor guy" Andy said pointing to the screen. "I think you are right" Sharon said as she got up and moved closer to the image. "Buzz, can you do a split screen and put both pictures of the person here and the janitor up?" Sharon said as she waited for Buzz's response. "Yes Captain. There you are" Buzz said as he split the screen up. Before them stood both the man they saw in the morning and the janitor. "I'd say that is a match" Mike said to them. "I'll leave this up to the side and continue showing the rest of the video" Buzz said to them and then played the video again.

"So, he goes into the locker in the morning, and drops something off" Andy said to them. "What did he drop off?" Sharon asked. "Okay, so he disappears and now someone else goes to the same exact locker and takes something out of it, but replaces it with what?" Andy said as the images unfolded in front of them. "Buzz, pause it!" Mike said as he moved closer to the screen as well. "There" he said pointing to the object in the hands of the unknown person. "There's your explosives Captain" Mike said to Sharon as the screen paused and Sharon looked at it closely. "So who the hell is that?" Andy said as they all looked at the screen. "I can run the picture through our facial recognition software, Captain but I don't know if we will get a match" Mike said to Sharon. "Do it, maybe we will get lucky here" Sharon said and Mike walked towards the door. "I'll help you Lieutenant" Buzz said to Mike as he brought his laptop with him and left the room.

Andy stood up and walked over to where Sharon was standing. He placed his hand at the small of her back and looked at her. The screens were black now as Buzz had to disconnect everything to take the laptop with him and Mike. She leaned her head against his shoulder as she was tired. They all were after being called out early this morning. He held her there for a while until Julio interrupted them. "Ma'am, we have a match on the fingerprints" Julio said as he held up the piece of paper. Andy and Sharon followed Julio back in to the Murder Room.

"His name is Robert Sterling, age 43 and resided in Los Angeles at 770 S Grand Ave" Julio said to everybody in the Murder Room as he wrote the information on the board. "Not cheap to live there" Mike said out loud. Sharon glanced over at him and returned her focus to what Julio was saying. "He worked at the 7th Street Bank as a relationship banker" Julio added. "Okay, now that we know who our subject is, we need to run him and find out why he was the target of the bomb blast at Union Station" Sharon said to her team and then headed in to her office. "Hey, is Morales ready yet?" Andy asked Provenza as he was at his desk. "He needs fifteen more minutes" Provenza said as he sat down on his chair and looked over some papers that were on his desk. Andy glanced over to Sharon in her office. She was sitting at her desk looking at something. "I'm running the guy's financials, Lieutenant" Amy said to Provenza. "Good, Julio?" Provenza said. "Ah, sir, I am working on a search warrant for his apartment" Julio said to him. "Okay, Mike why are you and Buzz just sitting there?" Provenza asked Mike. "Because we are running facial recognition software on another subject that we saw at Union Station accessing the locker" Mike said to him. "How come no one told me that?" Provenza asked. "You were busy with Morales on the phone, that's why" Andy said to him.

Andy knocked on Sharon's office door. "Come in" she said and he entered her office, closing the door behind him. He walked over to where she was sitting and leaned up against her desk. She leaned back in her chair as she looked up at him. "Morales is probably ready by now, are you ready to go down there?" he said to her grabbing her right hand and holding it in his hands. Sharon closed her eyes for a couple of seconds before opening them up again. Andy looked at her with a worried expression. "Are you okay?" he asked her. "Yes" she said as she got up from her chair and smoothed out his tie that he was wearing. "Ready?" she asked him as she moved away from him and headed to the door. He followed her out of her office. "Lieutenant, are you going to join us?" Sharon asked Provenza as she and Andy walked by his desk. "Yes Captain" Provenza said as he got up. "Julio, I want to know the minute you get a search warrant" Provenza said to Julio as he left his desk to join Sharon and Andy. "Yes sir" Julio said as he was still holding on the phone.

When the three of them arrive at the morgue, Dr. Morales was waiting for them outside of the examination room. "Ah, Captain and Lieutenants, thank you for joining me so early in the morning" Dr. Morales said to them as they put their gowns on. "I worked as fast as I could to get you a preliminary report on your guy here" Dr. Morales told Sharon as they all walked into the room. Dr. Morales walked over to his table and handed the report to Sharon. "Your guy was killed by blunt impact from the bomb that went off" Dr. Morales started to say to them. "We identified him as Robert Sterling of Los Angeles" Sharon said to Dr. Morales. "Good, you are one step ahead of me, Captain" Dr. Morales said to her. "So, Robert here was facing the locker when it exploded and the initial impact of the blast is what killed him. There are secondary burns on his body but not the cause of death" Dr. Morales continued. "Oh, and he had a rather odd tattoo on his wrist" Dr. Morales stated as he showed the three of them the tattoo. Andy and Provenza looked at each other but they never saw such a thing before. The tattoo looked like a capitol I with four dots surrounding it and then two branches coming up from the letter I. Andy quickly snapped a picture of it with his phone so they could research it further. "Thank you Doctor" Sharon said to Dr. Morales. "Any time" he said back to her as the three of them left.

As they were removing their gowns, Provenza's phone rang and he answered it. "Sir, we just got the search warrant for Robert's house" Julio said on the phone. "Good, good. We are just leaving the morgue now, we will meet you by the cars and we'll all go together" Provenza said and then hung up. Sharon looked at him. "We got a search warrant Captain for Mr. Sterling's apartment" Provenza said to Sharon. Sharon looked at her watch. It was now 5:30 in the morning. "Good, go search his apartment and see what's there. In the meantime, I'm going to check in at home and see if everyone is okay there" Sharon said to Provenza and Andy. Andy stopped her. "Be careful, okay?" Andy said to her as he looked into her eyes. She smiled back to him. "Please be careful as well" she said to him and she went into the elevator to head back up to her office.

Andy and Provenza met up with the rest of the team and headed towards Robert Sterling's apartment at Eighth and Grand in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. As they pulled up to the apartment complex, the doorman opened the door for all of them. "Hello sir, we have a search warrant to search the apartment of a Mr. Robert Sterling" Provenza said to the man at the desk while he flashed his badge to him. Julio provided him with the warrant and he informed them where his apartment was located. They proceeded up to the fifth floor, corner unit and the man unlocked the door for them. "Please wait outside" Andy told the man and the man nodded and stepped to the side of the hallway. Everyone lined up to enter the apartment. Provenza nodded and Andy opened the door and went in first, followed by Julio, Amy, Mike, Provenza, and Buzz was last filming. They cleared all of the rooms and then met up in the kitchen. "Robert Sterling was living a luxury life sir" Julio said to Provenza as he showed him all state of the art gadgets and electronics. The apartment was very modern on the inside. Andy went into a room that he presumed was the guy's office and started going through some papers that were scattered on his desk. They were all banking papers from the bank that the guy worked at. Andy gathered the papers and proceeded to the kitchen to meet up with the rest of the team.

"He had all of these banking papers on his desk from his bank that he worked at. It's going to take some time to go through all of these" Andy said to Provenza as he held the papers up. "Alright, let's gather everything that we can and bring it back to the station to go over" Provenza said to them. Meanwhile, back at the office, Sharon was sitting at her desk drinking a cup of tea that she had made herself. It was now 6 o'clock and she was sure Rusty would be up. She decided to text Rusty to see how things were going. 'Are you guys up?' she texted him and waited for a response. She was looking at all of the reports her team had gathered so far about this case when Rusty texted her back. 'Yes, Matthew asked where you guys were at. Told him you had to catch the bad guys. He's getting dressed now' Rusty's message said. Knowing that Rusty was taking care of Matthew for them brought a little smile to Sharon's face. 'Good. I'm sorry that we are not there' Sharon texted back and waited. 'No problem, I've got this. Good luck with the case' Rusty texted back. 'Thank you, sweetie' Sharon texted back and then went back to looking at the various reports.

There was a knock on her door and Chief Howard entered her office. "Captain, I just would like to know the status of your investigation" he said to her. "My team is currently out conducting a search warrant on Robert Sterling's apartment. He is, what looks to be, the target of the bomb blast last night" Sharon said to Chief Howard as he sat down on one of her chairs. She passed the preliminary reports to him and he read them over. "Do we know who the mystery man is in the video yet?" Chief Howard asked her. Sharon shook her head. "No, we don't yet but Mike is running his facial recognition software to find a possible match" Sharon said to him. "Good, like I said earlier I'm not going to go to the press unless we absolutely have to. I just gave them the standard statement, which should satisfy their reporting for now" Chief Howard said as he stood up. "Keep up the good work, Captain" he said to her as he left her office. "Thank you Chief" she said back to him as he closed her office door.

Sharon turned around and looked out her window onto the streets of Los Angeles. The sun hadn't risen yet and the streets were starting to fill with people going to and coming from work. Her team needed to solve this case quickly before the mystery man slipped away. Her phone alerted her to a text message. It was from Andy. 'Heading back to the office, do you want breakfast?' it said. 'Yes. Where are you stopping?' she wrote back. 'The café you like' he replied. 'You know what I like from there' she responded. 'I can't show up like that at work' he said to her. She smirked and laughed. 'Too bad, I was waiting for you with just a smile on' she said back to him. If he wanted to be flirty then she was going to go along with it. 'You know Provenza is in the car with me' he said back to her. 'I hope he's driving the car' she said back to him. 'Yes' he said to her.

It was 7 o'clock by the time the team returned from the apartment search and they were currently eating the breakfast that Provenza and Andy had stopped to pick up. Sharon was eating oatmeal with fruit and Andy was eating the same thing. They were both sitting in her office enjoying their food when Sharon's office phone rang. "Captain Flynn" she said into the phone as she looked back at Andy. "Oh, Hi Cynthia" Sharon said and then she listened to what Cynthia was saying. Suddenly Sharon's face went from happy to nothing. "Are you sure?" Sharon said when she found her voice again. "Oh, he's adjusting just fine" Sharon said to Cynthia. Andy could only hear Sharon's side of the conversation but from what he could tell and see on Sharon's face, they were speaking about Matthew. "Ok, please let me know if you do find them. Thank you" Sharon said and then hung up.

"What is it?" Andy asked her as she looked back at him. Sharon cleared her throat. "They think they found a relative of Matthew's" Sharon said in a shaky voice. Andy's heart dropped. They had both considered Matthew a part of their family now. "So what happens now?" Andy asked her as he put his bowl down on her desk and got up to stand next to her. "They run a DNA test on the person to confirm and then that person has to want to take custody" Sharon said to Andy. Andy gently pulled Sharon up from her seat and gathered her in his arms. She started to cry. She was crying because her heart was breaking. She knew not to get attached to Matthew because she knew that this might eventually happen. She just didn't think that it would be around Christmas and his birthday. Andy held her and gently rubbed circles on her back. "It will work out Sharon. He's not going to leave us. Besides what are the odds that this person they found is a match to him?" Andy said trying to reassure Sharon but it wasn't working too well. Andy had been attached to the boy more so than Sharon was and his heart was also breaking.

Sharon rubbed her eyes and wiped the tears away. "I'm sorry I'm crying and ruining your dress shirt" she said to him. "No worries" Andy said back to her. He cupped her chin with his hands and looked her in her eyes. "What are we going to tell him? He's been adjusting so well with us, I'd hate to devastate him with this" Sharon said to Andy. "We won't say anything to him until we know exactly what's going on and we hear back from Cynthia, okay?" Andy said to her. "I still plan on taking him to see Santa tonight, if we get out at a decent time here" Andy said as he wiped her tears on her face. He moved away from her and gathered his food as suddenly he wasn't hungry anymore. "Come on, let's get back to this case and worry about the other thing later" Andy said to her and Sharon nodded back to him. Her cell phone alerted to a text message from Rusty saying that they were leaving the house and heading to Matthew's school and doggie day care for Moxie.

Sharon walked out of her office and towards the Murder Board as her team regrouped and was now ready to continue their investigation. "Captain, no group has claimed responsibility for this incident" Amy stated to Sharon. "Okay, any news yet on who are mystery man is?" Sharon asked Mike. "No Captain, not yet" Mike said as he watched his computer and the program was still running. "Do we know anything about the tattoo that was on his arm?" Sharon asked her team as she looked at the picture of the tattoo on the Murder Board. "That tattoo is from _The Hobbit_ " Buzz answered her. Everyone turned around to look at Buzz. "What?" Buzz said to them. "Does it mean anything?" Andy asked Buzz. "Yes, it means thief. It was the rune Gandalf etched into Bilbo's door so the dwarves could find his house." Buzz answered Andy. Andy looked back at Buzz. "Thief? Well, what did he steal?" Provenza asked. Andy shrugged his shoulders. "What about his financials?" Sharon asked. "He was in debt, owed money on his credit cards, never filed for bankruptcy but it's not pretty Captain" Julio said to Sharon as she looked over the credit report herself. "Lieutenant Provenza, I would like you and Lieutenant Flynn to go to where Robert worked and see if we can find any more information" Sharon said to Provenza as she looked at both of them. "Sure Captain" Provenza said to her and then Andy grabbed his suit jacket and the two of them left the office.

As they headed to the elevators, Provenza stopped Andy right before he pushed the button to call the elevator. "Alright, what's going on?" Provenza asked him. "What do you mean?" Andy said back to him. "You and the Captain, what's up?" Provenza stated as they stepped onto an elevator. Andy just looked back at him as the doors closed in front of them. "You both look like you've been sucker punched, now spill it" Provenza said back to Andy. Andy took a deep breath. "Alright, okay. Cynthia called and spoke to Sharon not too long ago while we were eating breakfast and she told her that they may have found a relative of Matthew" Andy explained to his best friend. Provenza understood and they exited the elevator and headed towards the car. "Sharon's heart is breaking and for that matter, so is mine" Andy said as they got in the car and drove off to the bank where Robert worked at.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Sharon was still standing by the Murder Board studying it. "Buzz, I want you to get the surveillance video from Union Station from the past month. I have a feeling that yesterday wasn't the first day that Robert used that locker" Sharon said to Buzz. "Yes ma'am" Buzz said and he made a phone call. "If he was so much in debt, how could he afford that apartment?" Sharon said out loud. Her phone again alerted her to a text message from Rusty. 'Dropped off Matthew and Moxie with no problems. He's excited about seeing Santa tonight. Heading to class now' Rusty had said to her. 'Thank you very much Rusty. You've been a big help' Sharon wrote back to him. She wondered how many more times would they get to spend together with Matthew? She shook her head. "Has the bank he works at reported any strange transactions recently?" Sharon asked Julio. "No ma'am" Julio replied. "Could you please have Lieutenants Provenza and Flynn ask that question when they get there" Sharon asked as she retreated back to her office. "Yes ma'am" Julio said back to her. Sharon sat down at her desk and went over Robert's financials one step at a time. Then she thought back to the surveillance video when they saw that mystery man at the locker. "What is really going on here?" she asked herself as she put the paper down and leaned back in her chair.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thanks again for the reviews and comments. I really appreciate it.

Chapter 4

Provenza and Andy pulled up to the 7th Street Bank and parked on the street. Andy glanced at the clock, 8:30. He glanced over at Provenza who was starting to get out of the car. "You know banks don't usually open till 9, right?" Andy said to him. Provenza stopped and got back in the car. "Well why would she send us out here earlier than when the bank opened?" Provenza said to Andy. "I don't know" Andy said as he looked out the passenger side window at the bank. "We bought him Christmas presents already, and his birthday is the 28th" Andy said out loud in the car. Provenza looked over at his best friend and could tell he was devastated. "I'm supposed to take him to see Santa tonight too, if we can get out at a decent time" Andy added. Provenza paused for a minute before saying something. "Maybe Cynthia will come back and say that the person who they thought was a relative is not related?" Provenza said to Andy. Andy appreciated the words his best friend said but the reality of it was they knew it was a possibility and they got attached to Matthew. "That kid's been through so much, I just don't know what would happen to him if he had to leave us" Andy said back to Provenza.

Andy was still looking out the window. "Hey" Provenza said as he slapped his arm against Andy's arm. "Why'd you do that?" Andy said as he rubbed his arm. "The bank is opening, come on" Provenza said as he got out of the car. Andy followed him out of the car. "You didn't have to hit me" Andy said to Provenza as they walked up to the bank's main entrance. "You were getting all sappy on me, I didn't know how else to get your attention" Provenza said as they entered. Andy glared back at him. They approached the security guard at the front entrance. "Good Morning, LAPD. We would like to speak to the bank's manager please" Provenza said to him as he flashed his badge. The security guard waved over another bank employee. "They would like to see the bank manager" the security guard said to the other employee. "Sure, please follow me" they said and Andy and Provenza followed them to an office. Andy took a look around as they were walking to the office. He didn't see anything unusual but that didn't mean anything at all. The employee showed them to the office of the bank manager. "Mr. Weston is the bank manager, he will be with you shortly" they said. "Thank you" Provenza said to them as they left.

"I don't see anything unusual here. Everyone here seems to be friendly" Andy said to Provenza. "Yeah, a little too friendly" Provenza said to him as they waited. Meanwhile, the bank employee went up to the manager and informed him two LAPD detectives were waiting in his office. "What?" Mr. Weston said to the employee. "They're in your office. Do you think it is about what happened last night?" the employee said to him. "Let's not worry too much, Debbie. They could be here for a number of reasons" Mr. Weston said as he placed the bank bonds back into the vault and headed towards his office. "I'm sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting, I'm Eric Weston, the bank's manager" Mr. Weston said to Provenza and Andy and shook their hands. Andy looked at him and the guy looked very familiar to him. "How can I help you two detectives?" he said to them. "Well, you could tell us about one of your employees, Robert Sterling" Provenza said to Mr. Weston as they all had a seat in the office. "Robert, what happened to him? Is he in trouble?" Mr. Weston asked. Andy huffed at him. "You could say that Mr. Weston" Andy said back to him. Mr. Weston looked at both of the detectives and knew he had to play it cool; otherwise the whole operation would be blown. "What kind of trouble is Robert in?" he asked innocently. "The dead kind" Andy said to him. "Robert's dead? How did that happen?" Mr. Weston asked them. "Ah, we can't divulge that information just yet. Can you tell us anything about him?" Provenza stated to him.

"Sure, what would you like to know" Mr. Weston said to them. "Well, did you observe any unusual behavior from him recently?" Provenza asked. "No, nothing unusual" Mr. Weston answered. "He came to work on time and would always stay after to help close out. He was very reliable" Mr. Weston added. Andy could tell Mr. Weston was hiding something. "Has your bank experienced any unusual activity such as odd withdrawals?" Andy asked him. "No" Mr. Weston said quickly. "Could you provide us with a printout of the bank's transactions, if possible?" Provenza asked Mr. Weston. "Sure" he said back to him. "Did you know anything about his financial situation?" Andy asked him. Mr. Weston shook his head. "No, just that he had some debts, but who doesn't these days" Mr. Weston answered. "Do you mind showing us his desk where he sat every day?" Provenza asked him. "Uh, no. Please follow me" Mr. Weston said as he got up from his desk and exited his office. Both Provenza and Andy looked at each other and then followed Mr. Weston.

"He sat over here at this desk. Everything is how he left it last night" Mr. Weston stated. "What time did he leave last night?" Andy asked him. "That would have had to been around 8:30 at night" Mr. Weston answered. "Did he usually leave work late like that?" Provenza asked. "We close at 7 and then we stick around to do paperwork and the closeout" Mr. Weston said. Both Andy and Provenza knew that they would need to get a search warrant to go through Robert's desk so they didn't touch it. Mr. Weston then provided the two of them with the printout they requested earlier. "Thank you Mr. Weston" Provenza said to him as he shook his hand. "No problem detectives" Mr. Weston said back to them and was glad they were getting ready to leave. Provenza and Andy were headed towards the door when Provenza stopped and turned around. "Oh, Mr. Weston, if we have any more questions can we call you?" Provenza said to him. "Sure, no problem. Here is my card" Mr. Weston said as he glanced at Andy before handing Provenza his card. Andy nodded at the security guard as the two of them exited the building.

They headed to the car and got in. "Something's not right in there" Andy said to Provenza. "I think Mr. Weston was a little nervous to see us" Provenza said as he started the car. "Nervous, he seemed more like terrified to me. Did he look familiar to you?" Andy asked. "No" Provenza said. "I think I've seen him before on the video surveillance from Union Station last night" Andy said back to him. "And he also had the same tattoo that Robert had on his left wrist when he shook our hands" Andy added. "Maybe our bank manager is more involved than he was leading us to believe" Provenza said as he navigated their way back through the downtown area. Andy briefly glanced at the printout that Mr. Weston provided and he didn't see anything that would stick out. They arrived back at the PAB and headed up to their office. Meanwhile, back at the bank, Mr. Weston was speaking with two other employees. "I don't think the LAPD knows we are involved but let's be careful for right now and we can resume the operation in a couple of days" he told the other two employees. They agreed and got back to work. Mr. Weston looked around at everything and then placed the bonds back in the vault once again and went back to his office.

Sharon was still at her desk when Provenza and Andy came back from the bank. They walked over to her office and informed her of their findings. Andy handed over the printout that Mr. Weston provided them with when Sharon asked about any unusual withdrawals at the bank recently. "This Mr. Weston guy was very nervous about something, Captain" Provenza said to her. "Yes, and he looked very familiar too. Like we've seen him before, plus he has the same tattoo as Robert" Andy said to Sharon as she looked up at him. They left Sharon's office and headed for the video room. "Buzz, can you pull up the surveillance from last night again?" Sharon asked Buzz as they passed his desk. "Yes Captain" Buzz said as he followed them. They pulled up his DMV photo from his driver's license and then Buzz got the footage from yesterday up on the screen. "Pause it when our mystery man comes to the locker" Sharon said to him and he did so. They placed the two pictures side by side for comparison. "I'd say we have a match, Captain" Mike said as he looked at the two and ran his checks. "Let's invite Mr. Weston down here for a little chat. In the meantime, is there any way we can look at the bank's reporting because I just don't believe this printout that Mr. Weston provided us is the true report" Sharon said to them. "Ah, there may be a way to do that Captain, I just need to make a few phone calls first" Mike said to her and then headed back to his desk.

Everyone left the video room except for Andy and Sharon. Sharon was still staring at the screen at their mystery man who was now identified as Eric Weston, the bank manager. "How are you holding up?" Andy asked her to break the silence in the room. "Fine" she said as she looked back at him. He could tell she was in captain mode but he saw right through that. "You know, Sharon" he started to say to her but she didn't want to hear it. "It's out of our hands, Andy" she said as she waved him off. "You told me you had faith that everything would work out for our family, right?" Andy said to her, carefully because he really didn't want to get in an argument with her. She nodded to him and tried to hide back the tears that were forming whenever she thought about it. Andy moved closer to her as she was now standing by the table. He gently touched her arm. "Maybe everything will still work out for us and Matthew" Andy said to her. Andy was optimistic about it; Sharon just hoped he would be right about it. They left the video room and headed back to the Murder Room.

"Captain, big surprise but I cannot get a hold of Mr. Weston" Provenza said to Sharon as her and Andy walked back into the Murder Room. "Ok, well we can't assume just anything yet, right?" Sharon said back to Provenza and he agreed. "Mike, anything yet?" Sharon asked him. "Still working on it Captain" Mike said as he was on the phone. "Julio, could you look at Robert's financials again and also his emails" Sharon asked Julio on her way to her office. Julio nodded and then looked at Andy. "I'll check on the emails, Julio" Andy said to him. "We need to figure out what was in that locker, now!" Sharon said to her team as she walked in her office. Andy sat back down at his desk; it was going to be a long day.

An hour later, Mike got up from his desk and headed over to the Captain's office. He glanced at Andy as he approached. "I would tread very carefully if you don't have any results yet" Andy said to Mike without looking up. Mike continued and knocked on Sharon's door. "Yes?" she said on the other side. Mike opened the door and stood in the doorway. "Sorry to bother you Captain, but I think I may have discovered something else that is interesting" Mike said to Sharon as Sharon looked up at him. "What do you have, Lieutenant?" Sharon said to him and waited for his response. "I asked my contact to look into the bank's financials, for lack of a better word, and it's a slight miscalculation from the printout Flynn and Provenza received this morning from the bank manager" Mike explained to her. "How much?" Sharon asked him. "500,000" Mike said. "What? How can that be?" Sharon said to Mike. "I don't know Captain, but I have the report that my contact sent me regarding 7th Street Bank and it shows the bank minus 500,000" Mike explained to Sharon as he showed her the report. "Okay, in fifteen minutes, I want to gather up the team and see what we have so far in this case" Sharon said to Mike. Mike nodded and left her office, closing the door behind him. As he left, he glanced back at Andy who was looking back at him. "Um, everybody, the Captain wants to meet in fifteen minutes to gather everything we have so far in this case" Mike said to the rest of the team. Andy turned around in his chair and looked at Sharon through her office window. She was currently on the phone and he wondered with whom.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 5

Sharon walked out of her office within fifteen minutes of speaking with Mike. "Okay everybody, I want to know what we have on this case" Sharon said to them as she lightly touched Andy on his shoulder. Andy stood up from his chair and followed her to the Murder Board. "Let's start with Robert Sterling" Sharon said as she looked at his picture on the Murder Board. "Okay ma'am, I ran his financials again and there was no way he could be living his luxury life without some form of outside payment" Julio stated. "Okay, was the bank the only job that he had?" she asked. "Yes" Julio said back to her. "Alright, so how did he get the extra money and where did it come from?" Sharon asked the team. "This might shed some light; it's from one of Robert's emails to someone at the address of usc lover 21 but he copies in two more addresses" Andy said as he picked up the printout from the printer and deposited 5 cents into Provenza's jar on his desk. "He's speaking about some kind of job they are involved with. Says and I quote "The arrangement we have is getting messy. Need to think of better solution. Bonds are not going to stay put" end quote" Andy read the email and then handed it to Sharon. Sharon looked it over herself. "Mike, how do we find out whose email address this belongs to?" Sharon turned to Mike and asked him. "Uh, you'll need a warrant for that information" Mike hesitantly said to her. Sharon put her head down and then looked up. "Fine, we will do this the old-fashioned way then" Sharon said as she walked back over to the board and looked at Eric Weston's picture. "Do we know where Eric Weston went to college?" Sharon asked. "I'll look it up Captain" Amy said to her.

"Says here that he went to USC" Amy said as she pointed to her laptop screen. "Big surprise there!" Provenza said back and Sharon huffed with a smirk. Andy was glad to actually see that from her. Since this morning's phone call with Cynthia, she was distant and in full Darth Captain Mode. "Is it safe to assume that Robert was speaking to Mr. Weston in that email?" Provenza asked the team. "Let's assume that, yes" Sharon answered him. "Okay, Mike you said something about a discrepancy in the report the Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza received this morning, can you elaborate on that if you could" Sharon said to Mike and then leaned up against one of the desks next to Andy. "I asked my contact to look into the bank's financials report and there is a miscalculation from the printout Flynn and Provenza received this morning from Mr. Weston" Mike said as he stood up from his desk and walked over to the Murder Board. "How much of a miscalculation?" Andy asked him. "500,000 dollars" Mike said and Provenza almost fell off of his chair. "What?" Provenza said as he couldn't believe what Mike had just stated to the team. "Are you okay, sir?" Julio asked Provenza as he stood up and then sat back down. "Yes, I'm fine. Now why would there be such a discrepancy?" Provenza asked Mike.

"The guy mentions the bonds are not going to stay put, what kind of bonds is he talking about here?" Andy asked the team. "There are numerous types of bonds that a bank would have. For example, US government issued bonds, municipal bonds, corporate bonds" Mike said to the team. "We get it Tao!" Provenza interrupted Mike. "So is Robert talking about bank bonds in that email?" Provenza asked everyone. "Yes, I think so" Sharon said to him. "I agree" Andy said in response. "That would make sense with the amount of money in the discrepancy" Mike stated as he sat back down at his desk. "Uh, sorry to interrupt, Captain, but I have the video footage you requested earlier" Buzz said to Sharon as he entered the room. "Thank you Buzz" Sharon said back to him. "Do you want us to bring in Mr. Weston for questioning, ma'am?" Julio asked Sharon as they all stood up to join Buzz in the video room. "No, what we have right now is circumstantial at best. We need something more concrete" Sharon said to Julio and then they all proceeded to the video room.

"So, I am going to start the footage about one month ago, you will see Robert Sterling approach the locker several times within the last month, almost on a daily basis. Also, there are several other people wearing janitor uniforms that visit that particular locker during the time frame" Buzz explains to everyone as they have a seat in the room. "Okay Buzz, please play it back" Sharon said to him and they watched the scenes unfold in front of them on the screen. "Okay, there is Robert approaching the locker" Amy said to the team. "He's putting something inside of it, just like yesterday" Andy pointed out. "Well now who's that person?" Provenza asked as they saw a new person on the screen, wearing a janitor's uniform go into the locker. "They are placing something inside that locker as well" Julio said. "Pause it Buzz and can you zoom in on the locker or maybe what the person is holding?" Sharon asked Buzz. "I'll try to make it clearer, Captain" Buzz said and adjusted the picture's resolution. "There, what does that look like to you?" Sharon asked the team. "Those are paper bonds, Captain" Mike answered her. "I'll get a search warrant, Captain" Provenza stated to her and stood up to head back to his desk.

"Go back to the bank and search it for any evidence of the same type of bonds. The bank has to keep a list of the bonds they sell to their customers, make sure it matches what their inventory states" Sharon told Mike and Andy. Mike, Amy, and Julio gathered their things and left for the bank. They would wait until Provenza got the warrant to enter the bank. "As soon as Provenza gets the warrant, I'll head out with him" Andy told Sharon as they walked back to their office. Sharon stopped and turned around to face Andy. She placed her hands on his suit and looked at him. "Please be careful" Sharon whispered to him. Andy looked back at her and nodded. "Of course" he said to her. Their quite moment was interrupted by Provenza coming up and informing the two of them that he had the search warrant. "Let's go Flynn" he said as he was gathering his suit jacket. Andy joined him and they left. "Vests Lieutenant!" Sharon called out to them as they were leaving. "Yes Captain" Provenza called out as they were in the hallway. Sharon took a deep breath and then headed back in to her office.

Sharon looked at the email from Robert that Andy had printed out again. "How many people are involved in this?" she said out loud to herself. Just then her office phone rang and she answered it. "Major Crimes, Captain Flynn" she said. "Hi Captain, it's Cynthia again" Cynthia said on the other end of the phone. Sharon's heart dropped again. "Oh, hello again" Sharon said as she cleared her throat so she could speak. "I know I called you this morning to inform you about a potential relative of Matthew. Well, it turns out that the person who was claiming to be a relative is not a relative of his. The DNA did not match" Cynthia said to Sharon over the phone. Sharon breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh my god" she whispered to herself. "I apologize for not speaking to you in person about this, I've been pretty busy here. The holiday season at DCFS and all" Cynthia said to her. "No need to apologize, Cynthia. I'm so glad that you called" Sharon said, practically beaming with happiness. "Have a good day Captain" Cynthia said and then hung up the phone. Sharon hung up as well. She knew she should inform Andy of the news but she didn't want to distract him on the search warrant they were executing so she decided it would wait until they got back and she could tell him in person.

When Andy and Provenza arrived at the bank, Mike, Julio, and Amy along with a couple of patrol officers were waiting outside. "Okay everyone I want vests on and be safe, we don't know what these people are capable of" Provenza said to the team and then they entered the bank. "Hello again, we have a search warrant to search your bank and pretty much everything inside of it" Provenza said to one of the workers they met this morning. "We'd also like to speak to Mr. Weston" Andy said to the person. "Oh, um, Mr. Weston is not here. He said he had a meeting to attend and would be back in an hour" the person informed both Andy and Provenza. "Fine, we are going to look at everything so if you and everyone else will cooperate, things will go very smoothly" Provenza stated to the person and then walked towards where Mike was standing behind the bank counter. "This is where they keep all of the bond records. I asked Erin here to print the report out for me and here it is" Mike said to Provenza as he showed him the report. "Okay Mike so how do we know if there are bonds missing?" Provenza asked him. "Simple, match the bonds in the safe with the bonds on the list" Mike said and then they both walked off towards the vault safe with Erin showing them the way.

Meanwhile, Andy was searching through Mr. Weston's office and desk area with Buzz filming everything on video. He came across a locked drawer on Mr. Weston's desk. There was no key in plain sight. Andy jiggled the drawer again but had no luck opening it. "We need to see what's in that drawer, Debbie" Andy said to the bank employee that was with them. "I don't have a key, only Mr. Weston does" Debbie said back to Andy. Andy walked over to her. "Can you do me a favor, Debbie?" Andy asked her. Debbie hesitated and didn't answer Andy. Instead she backed away and ran out of the office into the hallway and back towards the front of the bank lobby. Andy ran after her. "Debbie, stop!" Andy shouted back at her as he was running. Buzz was right behind him filming everything. Amy was in the bank lobby and looked up when she heard Andy yelling stop. She saw Debbie coming towards her and decided to tackle Debbie to the ground. Amy then handcuffed her and pulled her up in a sitting position. Andy then read her her rights. "I'll tell you everything. They made me do it" Debbie said to them. Amy and Andy both looked at each other. "I'll let the Captain know about this new development" Andy said back to Amy as he walked towards the front door while Amy watched Debbie.

Julio came over and fist bumped Amy as he saw the whole thing go down from where he was standing with another bank teller. Andy called Sharon to inform her about what happened. "We have a little turn of events here at the bank" Andy said to Sharon over the phone. "What is it?" Sharon said back to him. "Well, one of the bank workers, her name is Debbie, she ran from me when I asked her about Mr. Weston's desk. Well, Amy tackled her and placed her in handcuffs. We read her her rights and she says she's willing to tell us everything" Andy explained to Sharon. Sharon took a deep breath. "Is everyone okay?" Sharon asked Andy. "Yes, we're all fine" Andy answered her. "Her email address is one of those on Robert's email that I printed out. We just need to figure out who the other person is" Andy informed Sharon. "Bring her back down here. Did she ask for a lawyer?" Sharon asked Andy. "No, she didn't" Andy said as he looked back at Amy and Julio now with Debbie. "Okay, maybe she can tell us what really is going on with this" Sharon said to him. He nodded in agreement.

"Any sign of Mr. Weston?" Sharon asked him. "No, apparently he is at a meeting, which could be a lie for all we know" Andy said back to her. "Okay, I'll wait for you to bring her back here" Sharon said to him. "I'll let you know when we are on our way back. Provenza and Mike are checking out the bonds in the vault right now" Andy said back to her. Sharon thought she should tell him that she heard back from Cynthia. "Oh, Andy?" she said on the phone, hoping he didn't hang up yet. "Yes" he said back to her. "Cynthia called me back not too long ago" Sharon started to say. "Oh, she did?" Andy said to her. "The person is not a relative of Matthew's" Sharon said and Andy could detect happiness in her voice which made him smile. "See, I told you it would work out" Andy said back to her as he was also relieved and happy to hear about that. "We'll talk more later when you get back" Sharon said to him. "Love you" Andy said to her. "I love you too" Sharon said to him and then they both hung up.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 6

Provenza and Mike were in the bank's vault looking at the bonds that the bank had listed on their report. Erin, the bank teller, eagerly helped them locate everything that they needed. "There's over 500,000 dollars in bonds missing from the vault" Erin said to the detectives. "Yes, we think your boss and Robert were involved in it together" Provenza said to Erin. Erin looked at both of them. "Did you know anything about this?" Provenza asked her. "No, I had no idea that this was going on here" Erin said to them. "I just started working here about two weeks ago" Erin added. "Okay Erin, we appreciate your help in the matter" Mike said to her. "We need you to let us know when Mr. Weston decides to come back to work" Provenza said to her as they left the vault area. "We are seizing all of the bonds as evidence though, so we need to place them in these bags" Mike said to a patrol officer who was with them. Buzz found them as they were leaving. "Do you want me to look at the surveillance footage from the vaults sir?" Buzz asked Provenza. Provenza looked back at Mike. "That could show us exactly what has been going on here and who the players are" Mike said back to Provenza. "Okay Buzz, go ahead and do that" Provenza said to him. "Oh and Lieutenant, the bank employee, Debbie, ran from us but Amy was able to catch her and now they are waiting to take her downtown, I guess she is willing to talk" Buzz said to Provenza as he walked to get the footage from the bank.

Provenza walked up to where Andy was standing by the bank counter. "Why didn't you tell me we had a runner and new player in the game?" Provenza said to him as he joined him at the counter. "You were busy with Mike in the vault, besides we have this new development under control" Andy said back to him. "We are going to take her downtown to the office, she's willing to tell us everything" Andy added. "Buzz is just getting the surveillance footage from the cameras" Provenza said back to him. "The Captain already knows about this" Andy said to him. "Good. We'll leave two patrol officers here to wait for Mr. Weston to arrive. They can bring him downtown to us then instead of us waiting. In the meantime, let's bring Debbie in and see what she has to say" Provenza told Andy as they walked towards Amy, Julio, and Debbie. "Alright Debbie, you are coming in with us" Andy told her as Amy led her out of the bank in handcuffs. A few feet away, Eric Weston was watching the whole scene unfold and knew that he could not step foot near the bank. He decided to turn around flee the area before he was recognized. Andy then texted Sharon to let her know they were on their way back to the office.

The team arrived back at the PAB with Debbie in tow. Amy was escorting her up to their floor and as they walked through the Murder Room, Sharon was outside of her office waiting for them. Sharon pointed to the interview room that was next to electronics and Amy directed her in there. Julio followed her in to the room as well. Sharon waited for Andy and Provenza to join her before heading to the room. "Well, Captain, this is certainly a twist in events" Provenza said to her as they walked up to where she was standing. "Yes it certainly is. Have Julio run a background check on Debbie" Sharon told Provenza. "Yes, Captain" Provenza said as he looked at Andy and then went to join Julio and inform him of what the Captain wanted. Andy squeezed Sharon's shoulder as she seemed to be staring at the Murder Board. "Everything okay?" Andy asked her. She turned to him and smiled. "Yes" she said quietly to him. He smiled back at her. They started to walk towards the interview room. "We need to know who else was involved in this, there should be a total of four people, and we only know three of them" Sharon said to Andy as they came up to the interview room. The door was open and Sharon and Andy both walked inside. "Thank you detectives" Sharon said to both Amy and Julio and they both left the room leaving Andy and Sharon to talk with Debbie. Andy closed the door and joined Sharon at the table.

"Hello Debbie, I am Captain Sharon Flynn. I understand that you were read your rights before coming down here, is that correct?" Sharon asked Debbie. "Yes, yes that's correct" Debbie said to her. "Okay, and you are waiving your right to counsel?" Sharon asked her. "Yes" Debbie said back. "Alright then. What can you tell us about what's been going on at your bank?" Sharon asked her as she sat across from her. "Eric, the bank manager, and Robert were in a side job dealing with bonds from our bank" Debbie started to say. "They were stealing government bonds a few at a time at first, but then Eric started to get greedy and they pulled out more and more bonds from the vault" Debbie said but before she continued she paused for a brief moment. "Debbie, are you okay?" Sharon asked her. "You could get me a deal, right? If I continue to tell you everything, I can get a deal?" Debbie asked them. Andy looked over at Sharon. "Yes Debbie, we can speak to the Assistant District Attorney and see what they can do for you" Sharon said to her. "Okay" Debbie said and then she began to relax while she told the rest of the story.

"A couple of days ago, Robert sent out an email to Eric, myself, and Chase regarding the bonds. Robert thought that someone might be on to them and he started to freak out" Debbie continued. Sharon looked back at Andy and wondered the same thing he was wondering, who was Chase. "Wait a minute, hold up. Who is Chase?" Andy asked Debbie. "I don't know. I never met him but from what I heard, he's a friend of Eric's" Debbie said to them. Sharon turned her head to look at the camera. Provenza and Amy were in the electronics room along with Buzz. "I'll get on that" Amy said as she left the room and headed for her desk. "Then what happened?" Sharon said to Debbie, encouraging her to keep talking. "Yesterday morning, Robert went to the locker at Union Station where we had deposited the bonds over the past month and he placed the bonds that they took out the night before inside. Robert was getting nervous about them being there and he confronted Eric in his office that afternoon" Debbie said to them, as she fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt on her left hand. Andy noticed the same tattoo on her wrist like the others. He didn't want to interrupt the flow of the interview so he continued to listen.

"Well, we have motive, now all we need is Mr. Weston to show back up at the bank" Provenza said to Buzz as he looked at his watch. It was nearing 4 in the afternoon. He rubbed his face with his hand and continued to watch the interview with Debbie. "Did you hear their conversation?" Andy asked Debbie. "No, but there was shouting and then Robert exited Eric's office and went back to his desk. I was behind the counter helping out a customer" Debbie said to them. "A couple of minutes later Eric came out of his office and they both acted like nothing happened" Debbie concluded. "How did you get involved in this?" Sharon asked her. "When they started this about a month ago, I had walked in on them inside the vault and saw them doing something with the bonds. I asked them what was going on and Robert freaked out again. Said for me to leave but then Eric told me to stay and that if I kept quiet about the whole thing, they would let me in on a cut of the money" Debbie answered. "Okay Debbie, now I need you to write down all of the information you just told me and Lieutenant Flynn on this paper here and we will be back" Sharon said to her as she handed her a pad of paper. Debbie nodded and started to write everything down. Sharon and Andy exited the interview room and two patrol officers watched Debbie.

"She's lying, Sharon" Andy said to her as they walked out of the room. "Why do you say that?" Sharon asked Andy as she stopped him in the hallway. "Because she has the same tattoo as Robert and Eric do. You don't just get that if you are forced like she said she was" Andy said. "Hmm, perhaps she was more willing than she's led on" Sharon said back to him. Sharon and Andy then walked in to the electronics room and saw Buzz and Provenza sitting down behind the monitors. "Captain, I have Amy looking into who this Chase person might be" Provenza informed her. "Good, hopefully he is the last piece of this puzzle" Sharon said back to him. "Any news from patrol yet? Has Eric Weston returned to the bank?" Andy asked Provenza. Provenza shook his head. "No, nothing yet" he said to Andy. Sharon looked at both of her Lieutenants. "When Debbie is done writing down her version of what happened, have patrol take her down to holding and process her. We can hold her for 24 hours" Sharon said to Provenza. "Captain?" Provenza looked back at her and wondered what she was thinking. "I'm buying us time, Lieutenant, that we don't have" Sharon said as she walked out of electronics and Provenza and Andy followed her out. "We need time to find Eric Weston, I don't want to release Debbie yet. Andy is right, she knows more than she's telling and maybe a night down in holding will change her mind" Sharon continued speaking as she walked with her Lieutenants towards her office. "It will also give us time to find out who this Chase person is" Sharon added as she walked in to her office with Andy and Provenza.

Her office phone rang and she answered it. "Captain Flynn, Major Crimes" she said into the phone. "Yes Chief" Sharon said. "We are making progress on it, we currently have one person in custody and she will be going down to holding in a couple of minutes and we are still waiting for the bank manager to show back up at his bank" Sharon explained to Chief Howard on the other end of the phone call. "Thank you Chief" Sharon said and then she hung up her phone. She sat down on her chair and looked across her desk at Provenza and Andy. "Chief Howard is buying us more time with the Mayor and Chief of Police" Sharon said to them. "See, perhaps Fritz Howard has a better knack for dealing with politics than he said to us a couple of months ago" Provenza said to Sharon. "Maybe" Sharon said as she glanced at the papers on her desk. The paperwork regarding the new chief's position was hidden among other paperwork from this current case on her desk. "I want everyone to cut out at 5 tonight. We've been working on this non-stop since early this morning" Sharon said to them. "Okay Captain. But what about patrol? Eric Weston is still out there and we all know he's not going to show back up at the bank tonight" Provenza said to her. "Have patrol stay there till the bank closes and we will put out an APB on him. If patrol sees him, they can pick him up and call us back. In the meantime, I want everyone to get a decent meal and some much needed rest" Sharon said to the both of them. "I'll let the team know Captain" Provenza said as he stood up and proceeded to exit her office.

Andy looked back at Sharon as she was sitting at her desk. "We'll need to contact the DDA's office about this case and see what they want to do" Sharon said to Andy as she looked at him. "Do you want me to do that?" Andy asked her. Sharon shook her head. "No, I'll do it" Sharon said back to him. "We have a half an hour before I want everyone to leave here, let's see what else we can gather regarding this case" Sharon said to Andy. Andy stood up from his seat. "Yes ma'am" Andy said and gave her a wink as he left her office. Sharon smiled back at him and then picked up her phone to call DDA Hobbs.

"Alright everybody, the Captain said for us to leave at 5 o'clock tonight, head home, get a decent meal and some sleep and come back tomorrow to continue the investigation" Provenza said as he returned to his desk. "So, that gives us a good thirty minutes before leaving here" he added. Amy was still trying to locate this Chase person but was not having any luck. "I have some more information on Debbie, sir. Apparently she was also in a lot of debt" Julio said to Provenza as he got up to collect the printouts. He placed a quarter in Provenza's jar as he came back to his desk. "Debbie is going to be spending some time down at holding overnight, so that will give us more time to figure things out with her" Provenza said to Julio.

5 o'clock came and the team said their goodbyes and headed out. Andy walked over to Provenza's desk as he was getting ready to leave. He never told him that Cynthia had called Sharon back. "So, Cynthia called Sharon back while we were at the bank. The person is not a relative" Andy said to him. Provenza looked back at his friend and smiled. "See, nothing to worry about" he said as he patted Andy on his shoulder. "Go pick up the boy, take him to see Santa, and enjoy" Provenza said. "Oh, patrol said they would call me if they run into Mr. Weston tonight" he added as he started to leave. "Have a good night" Andy said back to him as he walked out of the office. Andy turned around and headed in to Sharon's office.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked her, leaning up against the doorway. Sharon stood up from her desk. "Yes, let's go pick up Matthew and we will go right away to take him to see Santa" Sharon said to Andy as she gathered her things and then closed the door to her office. "Everything okay?" Sharon asked him as they headed to the elevators. "Yes, Patrol took Debbie down to holding and they will also call Provenza if they run into Weston tonight" Andy said to her as they stepped on the elevator. "Good" Sharon said as she leaned her head on Andy's shoulder as the elevator took them down to the parking garage. Sharon's cell phone alerted her to a text message from Rusty. 'Just picked up Moxie and Gus and I are headed home with the dog' the message said. Sharon texted Rusty back with a big thank you. "Rusty picked up Moxie already so we don't have to worry about that" Sharon said to Andy as they walked towards their car. "How did Rusty know to pick Moxie up?" Andy asked her as they got in the car. "I spoke to him earlier today on the phone and asked him, this way we can pick up Matthew and take him straight to see Santa without going home first" Sharon said to him. Andy looked at her and smiled, grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips and kissed it. "You're amazing, do you know that?" Andy said as he started the car and drove to Matthew's school.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 7

Sharon and Andy arrived at Matthew's school and Andy parked the car. They both got out and went inside to pick Matthew up from the after school care program. It had been a long day and they both were feeling the effects. As they approached the teacher in the room with the children, Matthew saw them and got super excited. He gathered up his homework and placed the folders in his backpack and grabbed his jacket. Andy waved to Matthew as Sharon signed him out with the teacher. Matthew walked up to Andy and gave him a hug. "Hey buddy" Andy said to Matthew. "I missed you" Matthew said to Andy. Matthew then went over where Sharon was at and gave her a hug too. "I missed you Sharon" Matthew said to her. Sharon looked at Andy and then closed her eyes. "I missed you too Matthew" Sharon said back to him and then they walked out of the school. "You left so early this morning, that's what Rusty told me when I woke up" Matthew said to her as they walked to the car. "Did you catch the bad guys?" Matthew asked them as he climbed into the car and put his seatbelt on. "Well, we caught one of them today" Andy said back to Matthew as he handed him his backpack. Matthew placed it next to him on the seat. Andy closed the back door of the car and then looked at Sharon. She looked tired. "You okay?" Andy whispered to her before they got into the car. She nodded and Andy gave her a hug outside the car. Matthew looked out his window at them. "Come on, let's go see Santa" he whispered to her and then they both got in the car.

Andy then started the car and drove to Glendale to see the Santa that was at the Glendale Mall. "Are we going to pick up Moxie now?" Matthew asked them as they drove. "No, sweetie, Rusty already picked Moxie up and he's at home. We are going to go see Santa now" Sharon said back to him. Matthew gasped with excitement. "I've thought about what I am going to ask Santa for" Matthew said back to them. Sharon looked at Andy who glanced back at her while he drove down the streets. "What's that?" Andy asked him. "I'm going to ask him for a new toy for Moxie to play with, and then a robot toy for me. And then I'm going to ask him if he could let me live with you for a very long time" Matthew said innocently to them. "Those are all good things to ask Santa for, Matthew" Sharon said back to him. The last request Matthew said really tore Sharon's heart. She knew it would happen again, that Cynthia would call them up to notify them about a possible relative coming into the picture. She was tired and didn't want to think about what happened this morning so she focused on what they were doing now when Andy pulled up to the mall and parked their car. They all got out of the car and Matthew held both Andy's and Sharon's hand as they walked inside.

As they approached the area where Santa was at, they saw the long line that awaited them. Matthew looked on at the magical display that was Santa's house and they even had reindeer there around the outside of it. "That line is very long, Andy" Sharon said to him as she looked at the line and then again at Matthew. "I know sweetheart, but he's really excited and I want him to see Santa after the talk I had with him yesterday" Andy whispered to Sharon so Matthew didn't hear. Sharon smiled back at him. They were both exhausted from being woken up so early this morning and then working the current case. She looked at Matthew and saw his eyes light up when he saw Santa, they couldn't disappoint him. "Are you ready?" she asked Matthew and he nodded. "Let's go then" she said as they walked over to where the line started and waited patiently for their turn.

As they waited in line, Andy took the opportunity to sneak away to go talk with one of Santa's elves. "Can you give a message to Santa for me?" Andy said to them. "Sure" they said back. "We are here with our foster child, Matthew, and I told him that I sort of knew Santa so could you make sure that when it's his turn to see Santa, you know, make it personalized somehow. He's also had a little bit of a rough couple of months" Andy said to the elf. "Of course sir, what's your name so I can relay that to Santa as well" the elf asked him. "My name is Andy, I'm a Lieutenant with the LAPD" Andy said as he flashed his badge to the elf. "Okay, thank you sir" the elf said back to Andy and then Andy returned to the line where Sharon and Matthew were at. "Where did you go?" Sharon asked him. "Just looking around that's all" Andy said back to her with a smile. They waited about twenty minutes and it was finally Matthew's turn to talk to Santa.

"Ho, ho, ho. Hello Matthew" Santa said as Matthew approached him. Sharon and Andy both looked on as Matthew sat on his lap. Matthew was surprised that Santa knew his name without him telling it to him. "Hi Santa" he said back to him. "I see that Andy brought you to see me tonight, I'm very glad to see that he did" Santa said to Matthew and Matthew eyes lit up. "He told me that he knows you Santa" Matthew said to him. "Of course. I know the Lieutenant very well" Santa said back to him. Sharon looked at Andy who was watching Matthew speak to Santa. "What did you do?" Sharon asked Andy. Andy glanced back at her. "I don't know what you are talking about" Andy said to her and then continued to watch Matthew talk with Santa. Sharon just shook her head. "What would you like for Christmas, Matthew?" Santa asked him. "Can you bring a new toy for my dog Moxie and I would like a robot toy too" Matthew said to him. "I'll get my elves working on that right away" Santa said to him. Sharon looked at Matthew as he sat talking with Santa, and no matter how tired they were, to see the look on Matthew's face was priceless. "Do you think it's possible that I can stay with Andy and Sharon forever?" Matthew asked Santa. "Anything's possible, Matthew" Santa said to him. "Now, be a good boy for them" Santa said to Matthew as he got off of his lap. "Thank you Santa" Matthew said back to him and rejoined Sharon and Andy who were standing off to the side now.

"Santa did know you Andy" Matthew said to Andy as they walked back to the car. "See, I told you" Andy said back to Matthew and then glanced at Sharon who was holding Matthew's hand as they walked to the car. "Thank you for taking me to see Santa" Matthew said as he got into the car and settled in. "You're welcome" Sharon said to him as she closed the door. Andy and Sharon looked at each other. "You continue to amaze me" Sharon said to Andy as she fixed his tie. He smiled at her and then they both got in the car. Andy started to drive them back home. It was a little past 7 o'clock when they finally got home. Matthew ran into the house and found Moxie waiting for him in the kitchen. Rusty and Gus were there too, just hanging out. Sharon walked into the kitchen and saw them. "You guys are home now, good" Rusty said to Sharon. "Gus made you guy's dinner" Rusty added. Sharon put her things away and saw the dinner that was on the stove. "Thank you Gus, you didn't have to do that" Sharon said to Gus and gave him a hug. "Oh, it was no problem. Plus you guys are probably tired from your early morning" Gus said back to Sharon. Andy joined them in the kitchen and saw the dinner that was already made. "Thank you Gus" he said to him as he shook his hand.

Everyone had just sat down to dinner when Sharon's phone rang. "It's your partner" she said to Andy as she picked up the phone and answered it. "Yes Lieutenant?" she said. "Sorry to bother you again Captain, but we have a situation" Provenza said to her. "What is it?" Sharon said as she got up from the table and walked out of the room. Andy followed her. "You guys start eating. Please make sure Matthew eats his food" Andy said to Rusty as he left the room. Rusty, Gus, and Matthew started to eat their dinner. Andy joined Sharon in the den. "Mr. Weston never showed back up at the bank tonight. I sent patrol over to his house and they are waiting for further instructions, Captain" Provenza informed her. "Tell them to wait for our arrival at his house before going in" Sharon said to Provenza. "Okay Captain" Provenza said back to her. "Lieutenant, call everyone and let's meet up in twenty minutes at the office" Sharon said and then she hung up. "What's going on?" Andy asked her. "Eric Weston never showed up at the bank again. Provenza told patrol to go over to his house and they are waiting for us over there" Sharon told Andy as she walked back in to the kitchen. Andy rubbed his neck, this day couldn't get any more longer for them.

"I'm sorry guys but Andy and I are getting called out again for this case we are working on" Sharon said to the boys. "Don't worry about it Mom" Rusty said to Sharon. Sharon went over to Matthew. "I'm sorry but Andy and I need to leave again" she said to Matthew. She gave him a kiss on his forehead which she started doing about a week ago. "I can see if Nicole could come over if you and Gus want to go out tonight?" Sharon said to Rusty. "No, we can watch Matthew tonight" Gus said to Sharon. "Are you sure?" Sharon asked. "Yes, no problem Mom" Rusty answered her. "Okay, please make sure Matthew finishes his homework tonight. I'll call you later when we can" Sharon said to Rusty as Andy met her in the kitchen. "Thank you" Andy said to Rusty as he followed Sharon out back to the car.

They arrived at the office and met up with the rest of the team in the parking garage. Provenza already had the search warrant in his hands. "Okay, I want everyone to be safe when we get to Eric Weston's house. We don't know what he is capable of" Sharon said to her team as they put their vests on. "I have a couple of members from SOB meeting us at his house as well Captain" Provenza said to her. "Good" Sharon said back to him as she climbed back in the car with Andy and they headed over to Eric Weston's house. Patrol was still waiting outside when they arrived and they met up with both them and members of SOB. "He's used explosives before, I want everyone to be safe" Sharon said to her team. "Okay, Julio, Amy you take the back with Gonzalez from SOB" Provenza told them. "Flynn, Mike, Captain, myself and Smith will take the front of the house" Provenza said and they all acknowledged. "Patrol, stay out here and secure the perimeter" Provenza told them. "Yes sir" the patrol officers said and they all went to their positions. Andy looked at Sharon who was standing behind him near the front door. "Be safe" he whispered to her. "You too" she whispered back to him. Smith from SOB looked around the front of the house. "I don't see any trip wires or anything like that Captain" he said to Sharon as they got ready to go inside. "Okay Flynn" Provenza said to Andy. Andy knocked on the front door. "LAPD, Mr. Weston, open the door!" he yelled. They waited a brief minute and then they busted the front door and went inside the house.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thanks again for the reviews and comments. I really appreciate them!

Chapter 8

They entered Eric Weston's house and Andy led the group of them inside. They searched the first floor of the house and cleared the rooms. There was no sign of Eric so far. Amy, Julio, and Gonzalez entered the house from the back when they heard the front door open. They cleared the rooms close to them and immediately went up the stairs to the second floor to see if Eric was up there. "It's clear up here sir!" Julio called down to Provenza as he stood in the living room with Buzz. Buzz started to film the house. Mike and Officer Smith moved towards the garage and cleared that while Sharon and Andy came up to another door in the house. Sharon stood on one side and Andy stood on the other. "Ready?" Andy asked Sharon and she nodded. Andy opened the door and there were stairs that led down to the basement. Andy flipped on the switch that was on the wall and the basement lit up. He carefully descended the stairs and Sharon followed him. They moved through the basement which had an old couch, table and chairs along with a washer and dryer. Andy then approached a workbench area where there were wires and tools scattered on the top of the workbench. The basement was cleared. Eric was not at the house. Both of them placed their guns back in their holsters. "What do you think all this is for?" Andy asked Sharon as he pointed to the wires. He looked back at Sharon who had an almost panicked look on her face. "Don't touch that!" she said to him as she grabbed his arm.

Andy took a closer look on the workbench and he saw why Sharon had a panicked look on her face, C4 was staring back at them. "This must be where he made his bomb for the locker" Sharon said to Andy as she pulled Andy back away from the bench. Andy's heart was pounding now and he could hear it beating in his ears. "Lieutenant!" Sharon called up to the first floor and Provenza made his way to the stairs. "Yes Captain?" he said to her. "We have a problem down here" she said back to him. "Call the bomb squad" she said as she swallowed hard. Andy slowly backed away from the workbench, careful not to touch anything on his way back out. He turned around and grabbed Sharon in his arms and moved her with him, acting as a shield in case something happened. They made it back to the stairs and headed up to the rest of the team. "There's enough C4 down there to blow up this house and the whole entire block" Andy said to Provenza as they reached the first floor. "I want everyone out of the house, now!" Sharon said to her team and the other officers and the quickly made their way out of the house.

The had set up a perimeter of 50 feet surrounding the house when the LAPD Bomb Squad showed up to Eric Weston's house. "Lieutenant Freehold, there's bricks of C4 in the basement located on the workbench down there with wires and everything else you could think of next to it" Sharon had told the Lieutenant who was in charge of the bomb squad. "Okay, Captain. We'll take it from here" the Lieutenant said back to her and she rejoined her team. She looked around at Julio, Amy, Mike, Buzz, Provenza, and then Andy. "Is everyone okay?" Sharon said concerned. "Yes Captain, we're all fine now" Provenza said back to her as he looked at everybody else who nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'm pretty sure Eric Weston is not going to show up here tonight" Sharon said to them. "Yes ma'am, patrol has his picture and it's been circulated throughout the LAPD and the county. Everyone is looking for him" Julio informed her.

Sharon's phone rang and she saw it was Chief Howard calling her. "Yes Chief" she said as she answered her phone. "Captain, I heard the bomb squad was called out to Eric Weston's home, is everything okay?" Chief Howard said over the phone. "Yes Chief, things are under control here. We searched his house after he did not show up at the bank and found C4, a lot of it" Sharon said to him. "Did you find Eric Weston yet?" Chief Howard asked. "No, he was not home and frankly I'm out of leads right now" Sharon said back to him. "Understand Captain. Get some sleep and get a fresh start tomorrow morning, that's an order" Chief Howard said to her. "Thank you Chief" Sharon said and then she hung up her phone. "There's not much we can do here Captain" Mike said to Sharon. "SID is going to go over the house once the bomb squad declares it safe, in the meantime what do you want us to do?" Mike informed her. "Okay, per Chief Howard everyone head home, and we will resume this all tomorrow morning" Sharon informed her team. Everyone looked at her. "We are all tired here, get some rest, I want a fresh start tomorrow morning" Sharon said to them and they left the scene.

"Where could he be hiding?" Sharon asked Andy as they got in the car. "I don't know. We never did discover who Chase was in this case" Andy said to her as he started the car. Sharon was looking out the window, trying to think when Andy gently touched her arm with his hand. She looked over to him and smiled. "Let's go home, we can continue this tomorrow" Sharon said to him and he drove them back home. Meanwhile, Eric Weston was hiding out near Manhattan Beach where Chase resided. "The cops were close on my tail. I saw them pull up outside my house so I grabbed all of the bonds and placed them in my backpack. Here's your share" Eric said to Chase as he handed him a portion of the bonds. "Where are you going to go now?" Chase asked Eric. "I was thinking about hanging here for the night and then heading south" Eric said to him. "That's fine, you know I'm always here for you brother" Chase said back to Eric. "Thanks" Eric said to Chase and shook his hand.

As Sharon and Andy arrived back home, Andy turned off the ignition of the car and stopped Sharon from exiting the car. She turned to face him. "What is it?" she asked him. He looked back at her. "Are you doing okay?" he asked her. She looked back at him. "I'm fine Andy, really" she said to him. "I was scared back there in the basement" he said to her as he looked out the front window. She grabbed his hand and interlaced their fingers. "Me too" she whispered. She squeezed his hand. "Come on, before we both fall asleep in the car" Sharon said to him and they both exited the car and rejoined their hands as they headed in to the house. Rusty and Gus were in the kitchen when Sharon and Andy came inside. "How was Matthew?" Sharon asked them. "He was fine, no trouble at all" Rusty said to Sharon and Andy. "Are you home for the night?" Rusty asked Sharon. "Yes, we are still solving this case, but we are home for the night" Sharon said and she turned around to see Andy grabbing a glass of water for both of them. "Okay, well Gus and I will be heading out then. Matthew is upstairs sleeping. Have a good night" Rusty said to the both of them. "Good night Sharon, Andy" Gus said to them as they were leaving. "Good night" Sharon and Andy said in unison to them. Andy handed a glass of water to Sharon. "Thank you" she said as she accepted the glass from him.

"I'm going to go check on Matthew and then I am heading to bed, will you be joining me?" Sharon said to Andy in the kitchen. "Just let me take Moxie out one more time and I will be right there with you" Andy said to Sharon and then he took the dog outside. Sharon went upstairs to check on Matthew. She opened his door to his room and she saw that he was sleeping. Sharon heard Moxie shake his head and his tags jingled as he came back from outside. Moxie ran up the stairs and Sharon opened the door to Matthew's room and Moxie went inside. Then Sharon closed the door as Andy was coming up the stairs. "Matthew's asleep?" Andy asked her as they walked in to their bedroom. "Yes, he is" Sharon said as Andy closed the door behind them. "I'm going to take a shower" Sharon said as she slowly undressed. Andy just stood there watching her. "Are you going to join me?" she asked him as she walked by him on the way to their bathroom. "Yes" he said back to her as he quickly got undressed. He then joined her in their shower, slowly caressing her back and arms with his hands. He moved her hair away from her neck and gently kissed over the scar that could be barely seen now. Sharon turned around in his arms and kissed his lips. The water from the shower continued to run down both of their bodies as they held each other. "I love you" she whispered to him. "I love you so much" he whispered back to her.

When the water started to turn cold, Andy shut the water off and grabbed a towel for him and Sharon. He quickly wrapped her in her towel and she dried herself off. He took a towel and did the same, then went into their closet and put on his pajamas. After drying herself off, she also went into their closet and put on her nightgown. When she walked out of the closet to join Andy in bed, he looked up at her and smiled. "Is that a new nightgown?" he asked her. "Yes it is" she said smiling as she slipped into bed. "I like it" Andy said to her as she laid down next to him and he held her close to him. Her head lay on his chest and within minutes, they were both asleep.

 _Sharon was back at Eric Weston's house searching and clearing the house with Andy again. She found them down in the basement as Andy moved forward and discovered the workbench. He turned on a light right above the bench and she heard a ticking noise. She looked back at Andy as he saw where the noise was coming from. "Go Sharon! Run!" he said to her as he turned her around and she ran up the stairs and out of the house. She looked back but Andy wasn't with her and then the house exploded. "No!" she screamed._

"No!" she screamed again, this time waking up in their bed. She was trying to catch her breath as Andy woke up to her screams. He pulled her into his arms and tried soothing her. "Shhh, it's okay Sharon. You're okay" he whispered to her as he held her while she cried. "Andy" she whispered to him, breathing normally now with tears still falling down her face. "Tell me about it" he whispered to her. She told him about the bomb in Eric's house and how he told her to run and then the house exploded with him still inside. "It's okay Sharon, I've got you" he whispered to her still holding her in his arms until she wanted to get up off the bed. He released his hold on her as she made her way to the bathroom. She turned on the faucet and splashed some cool water on her face, then wiped her face with a towel. She was looking at herself in the mirror when Andy came up behind her. She turned around and moved closer to him as he wrapped his arms around her. "Do you think you can get back to sleep?" he asked her as he held her in their bathroom. She shook her head no. He held her for a couple of minutes before she removed herself from his arms and went into their closet and changed her clothes.

She came out wearing a pair of pajama pants and one of Andy's Dodgers t-shirts as he stood in their bedroom. "I'm going downstairs" she said to him as she opened their bedroom door and headed for the stairs. Andy glanced at the clock in their room. 1:45 it said. He rubbed his hand over his face and threw on his t-shirt before following her downstairs. He found her in the family room and she had turned the lights on the Christmas tree on and had sat down on the couch, staring at it. He came up next to her on the couch and she scooted over making room for him. He sat down and then she leaned up against him as he wrapped his arms around her. They both were now looking at the tree and all of the ornaments that Sharon had hung on the tree a week before. She was still trembling from the dream she had and he gently rubbed her arms with his hand. "Are you cold?" he asked her. "Yes" she replied. He reached over them and grabbed the blanket that was at the end of the couch and he placed it over the both of them. She then settled back in his arms. "Have you ever just looked at the tree with all of the lights on it and wonder how magical it makes the season?" Sharon asked Andy as he continued to rub her arm gently. "Yes" he whispered to her and gently kissed her ear. She continued to look at the tree as Andy held her in his arms and eventually, closed her eyes and fell asleep. Andy continued to gently rub her arm, never letting go of her and he fell asleep.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 9

Morning came and Sharon woke up, still in Andy's arms and lying on the couch. She moved to face him as he was still sleeping. His face was very relaxed and she moved closer to kiss him. Her kissing him woke him up and he realized they were still on the couch as he held her close to him. He pulled back and looked at Sharon. "Good Morning" she whispered to him. "Morning" he said to her. She got up off of him and sat up at the other end of the couch. The Christmas tree lights were still on. He sat up next to her and wondered if she was alright after last night, or early morning nightmare. He grabbed her hand and placed it in his. "What time is it?" she asked him. He turned around on the couch to look behind him at the clock on the wall. He squinted up at it. "6:15" he said to her. She quickly got up from the couch and moved around the room. He stood up as well, stretching all of the kinks out of his back from sleeping on the couch and followed her up the stairs.

"I will get Matthew up, you go get yourself ready for the day" Andy said to her as he caught up to her in the hallway between the bedrooms upstairs. "Thank you" she said to him and smiled before she retreated into their bedroom to get dressed. Andy turned around and ran his hand through his hair before opening Matthew's door and waking him up. "Matthew, time to get up" he said to the boy who was slowly waking up. "You're home" Matthew said to Andy incoherently. "Yes buddy, but it's time to get up and get ready for school" Andy said to Matthew as he slowly got out of bed and walked over to the dresser to get his clothes for the school day. Matthew grabbed his uniform clothes and headed towards his bathroom to get dressed. Andy made sure that Matthew was ready to go downstairs by the time Sharon came out of their room. Matthew was playing with Moxie in his room when Andy went back to their bedroom and saw that Sharon was dressed already. She wore her black pant suit with a red dress shirt underneath her jacket. He always liked her in that pant suit. "I see we are wearing red today" Andy said to Sharon as he passed her heading to their closet. "Yes, I already picked out a shirt and tie to match" she said to him as she finished up her final touches. "Matthew is playing in his room with Moxie" he said to her as he went into the bathroom with his clothes.

By the time Andy had come downstairs, Sharon, Matthew, and Moxie were already in the kitchen eating some breakfast. Sharon had quickly made them all scrambled egg whites and wheat toast with some fresh fruit on the side. Andy sat down at the table and joined them for breakfast. When it came time for them to leave, Matthew was all ready standing by the back door with Moxie. "Did you forget something?" Andy said to Matthew as he handed him his backpack. Matthew smiled at him. "Thank you" he said to Andy and took his backpack from him. Andy looked back to see where Sharon was and she was gathering her things. She then came over to them with her purse and shoulder bag and they left the house and headed to Matthew's school. They dropped Matthew off at his school and then headed to doggie day care to drop off Moxie. Andy came back to the car after taking Moxie in and they headed into work.

When they arrived at the office, Provenza and the rest of the team were already at their desks working on the case. Julio was on the phone while Amy was looking something up on her computer. Mike was going over evidence from Eric's house that someone in SID had dropped off earlier. "Good morning everyone" Sharon said to the team as she headed towards her office to drop off her things. She then rejoined them at the Murder Board. Andy walked over to where Provenza was sitting at his desk and leaned against the desk across from him. "Okay, any news on where Eric Weston his disappeared to?" Sharon asked her team. "No ma'am" Julio said as he hung up his phone. "I just spoke with Customs and Border Protection at LAX and at the San Ysidro Border Crossing with Mexico, they are on alert and will notify us if they spot him trying to leave the country" Julio said to Sharon. "Good. Any news with finding this Chase person?" Sharon asked Amy. "I've looked up Eric's social media account, which he doesn't mention anyone by the name of Chase" Amy said to Sharon. "Could be a nickname" Andy said to them as he shrugged his shoulders. Sharon looked at him and nodded in agreement.

"Mike, what do you have there?" Sharon asked him as she went over to his desk. "A list of items that SID recovered from Eric's house. I was just going through the list to see what they inventoried" Mike said to Sharon. "I've also placed a hold or an alert on the bonds that are missing from the bank, presuming Eric still has them and if or when they are cashed, we should get an alert" Mike explained to Sharon as he handed her the report. "Thank you Mike" Sharon said as she turned around to look at the rest of the team. "Do we know if there was any missing C4 from his house?" Sharon asked. "No Captain, Lieutenant Freehold's report on the C4 just says it was safely removed from the house. We don't know if there was any missing because we don't know how much he had altogether" Amy said to Sharon. "Well that's reassuring. So Eric could be running around Los Angeles with C4 ready to blow up something else because we don't know how much he had to begin with?!" Provenza said in response to Amy. Sharon turned and looked at Provenza. "Okay Lieutenant, since you are concerned about that, you can tell me how Eric was able to acquire all of the C4 that he did have in his house. I mean, he must have gotten it from somewhere, right?" Sharon said to Provenza and then she walked back towards her office.

"Flynn, what's up with the Captain?" Provenza asked Andy as he was still leaning on one of the desks by the Murder Board. He could have told him about the nightmare Sharon had in the middle of the night, but decided against it. Andy just shook his head at Provenza and headed back to his desk. "What?" Provenza said to Andy as he walked away and sat down behind his desk. 'Where was this Eric person hiding and why can't we find him' Andy thought to himself as he rubbed his hand on his face and stared at his computer monitor. Andrea arrived in the murder room a couple of minutes after Sharon went to her office. "Hello everyone" she said as she greeted the detectives and waved to them. She then walked to Sharon's office and knocked on her door. "Come in" Sharon said and Andrea walked in her office and closed the door behind her.

"Andrea, thanks for coming over" Sharon said to her as she took a seat in front of Sharon's desk. "Well, it sounded like you needed someone to offer a deal to a bank robber?" Andrea said to her. "Yes, but I don't know if you want to charge her with just bank robbery" Sharon said to her. "Why, what else would the charges be?" Andrea asked. "Oh, well conspiracy for starters, bank fraud, accessory to murder" Sharon said as she handed the paperwork that had on Debbie. "Wow" Andrea said as she looked it over. "I'm having Debbie brought back up here from holding, although I was kind of hoping that when I did this, I would have had Eric Weston in custody as well" Sharon said to Andrea as she continued to look at the paperwork. "And Eric is who again?" Andrea asked her. "He's the leader of this group. They stole bank bonds from the bank they all work at and we think they were a group of four people" Sharon explained to her. "One of them was killed at a blast at Union Station. We have Eric Weston on video at Union Station. Eric is currently evading the police" Sharon said to Andrea. "We have Debbie in our custody and she spent the night down in holding so I'm sure she will be pleasant to speak with again," Sharon said to Andrea.

Patrol brought Debbie back up to their office and they placed her in the same interview room as she was in yesterday. Both Andy and Sharon went in to the interview room with Debbie as Andrea, Provenza, Mike, Julio, Amy, and Buzz sat in electronics and watched it on the monitors. "So Debbie, did you enjoy your stay overnight in holding?" Sharon asked Debbie. "Oh yeah, real great" Debbie said sarcastically. "I'm going to ask you again, because I have to, do you waive your right to counsel?" Sharon asked her. "I think I should get a lawyer now" Debbie said back. "Okay, we will provide you with one" Sharon said to her and her and Andy got up and left the room. Mike placed a call to legal services and about twenty minutes later, Mr. Jennings arrived and spoke to his client.

After some time speaking with Debbie, Mr. Jennings poked his head out of the interview room and informed Sharon that they were ready. Sharon looked at Andy and they proceeded back inside. "So, first of all, whatever my client says should not be used against her in the end. She has agreed to cooperate with the LAPD and I assume the ADA will be working on a deal for her" Mr. Jennings said to both Sharon and Andy. "Yes that's correct" Sharon said back to him. "Okay, what would you like to know?" Mr. Jennings said back and nodded at Debbie. "That's a nice tattoo you got on your wrist there. Where did you get that?" Andy said to her and pointed at the tattoo she had. "Oh, I don't know I just got it one day" Debbie said to Andy. "That's funny because your friend Eric has the same tattoo and so did Robert" Andy said back to her. Debbie looked down at the table and her hands were fidgeting. She was still handcuffed. "And I bet you Chase has the same tattoo as well" Andy said to her. Debbie looked up at Andy. "I don't know if he does because like I told you yesterday, I've never met him" Debbie said to Andy and then she looked at Sharon. "Were you and Robert and Eric part of a gang? Hmm, is that why you would all have the same tattoo?" Sharon asked Debbie. "Don't answer that" Mr. Jennings told Debbie. Debbie looked back at her lawyer. "Just stick with the facts" he said back to her.

"It was all Eric's idea from the first place" Debbie stated to both Sharon and Andy. "He said he wanted to get back at the bank for taking away the employee's pension fund and leaving us with poor benefits. Eric said he wanted to hit them where they wouldn't feel the effects of a money loss" Debbie said to them. "We started about a month ago and placed certain bonds to the side when one of us was in the vault and then when the bank was starting to close, we would move the bonds that were set aside into a backpack for easy transportation. We needed to hide them somewhere and Eric had suggested Union Station, in one of the lockers there" Debbie started to explain. "So everything you said to us yesterday, was that all not true?" Andy asked her. "Some of it was the truth" Debbie said to them. Andy smirked back at Debbie. "Okay, well what we need you to do, again, is to write everything down, and this time please tell the truth" Andy said as he handed her a pad of paper and a pen. Debbie began writing everything down again.

"Where would Eric be hiding?" Sharon asked Debbie as she was writing down her statement. "I don't know" Debbie answered as she finished. "Do you know where he would get C4 from?" Sharon asked her. "Hang on" Mr. Jennings interrupted Sharon's question. "My client doesn't know that answer" he said to Sharon and Andy. "But I do know. He ordered that from a scientific website" Debbie said. "Well that's great, you can buy C4 on the internet and it doesn't raise any flags?" Provenza said to the group in electronics. "You can buy anything on the internet these days" Mike said to Provenza. "Mr. Jennings, we would really like to help your client get a good deal from the Assistant District Attorney's office, but we need her to tell us where Eric is" Sharon said to him. Debbie looked back at them and then looked at her lawyer. "I don't know where he is at!" she said to them as she was getting agitated. Andy and Sharon both looked at each other. "Does he have any family that you know of?" Sharon asked her. "He spoke of a brother that he was close with" Debbie answered. "What is his name, do you remember?" Andy asked her. "Charles I think" Debbie said to him. Sharon looked at the team through the camera. Mike was currently looking up the name Charles Weston on his laptop. "We are currently looking that up Captain" Buzz said into the microphone so that Sharon could hear him in her earpiece. "Okay, I think my client has helped you enough, I'd like to speak with the ADA now" Mr. Jennings informed Sharon and Andy.

"Charles Weston, age 37, currently resides in Manhattan Beach" Mike said to the group. "Tell the Captain, we are heading over to Chase's place in Manhattan Beach and we will let her know what we find out" Provenza said to Buzz as he stood up and followed everyone out of electronics. Buzz nodded. "Captain, they found an address for Chase and are currently heading over there in Manhattan Beach" Buzz said into the microphone so Sharon could hear him. Sharon nodded at Buzz. "Of course, Mr. Jennings" Sharon said as she and Andy stood up and walked outside the room. The two patrol officers then entered the room to keep a watch on Debbie and her lawyer. Sharon and Andy stood outside the room. "Be careful" Sharon said to Andy. "I will" Andy said back to her and gave her a wink. Andy caught up with Provenza who was already at his desk where he retrieved his jacket. Her team headed out to Chase's address. Meanwhile Sharon and Andrea spoke about a possible deal for Debbie.

The team drove over to Chase's house in Manhattan Beach and met up with members of the Manhattan Beach Police just down the block from where Chase resided. "We believe this person is at that location. He's wanted for bank robbery, murder, destruction of public property, endangering lives, you get the gist of it" Provenza informed the Sergeant and his officers. "Okay Lieutenant, my officers will form a perimeter around his house while you and your team approach the house with me" Sergeant Kowalski stated. "We believe he is armed and dangerous, everybody use caution and be safe" Provenza informed everyone as they proceeded to where Chase's house was located. The team got into their positions. Andy, Provenza, and Sergeant Kowalski were at the front of the house along with two patrol officers while Mike, Amy, and Julio were at the back of the house with another two patrol officers. "Are you in position?" Provenza asked Mike. "Yes" Mike said over the radio. "Okay, let's go" Provenza said as he nodded to the Sergeant and his officers. The front door was knocked down and they proceeded inside the house.

They cleared the house and there was no sign of Eric or Chase inside. Mike and Amy searched the garage but Chase's car was still inside and Eric's car was also in the garage. "Well where did they go?" Provenza asked. They searched the whole entire house again, but no sign of either of them. "It looks like they left in a hurry. They left the food out on the kitchen table, sir" Julio stated to Provenza. "So they just disappear into thin air?" Provenza said. Andy just shrugged his shoulders, he didn't have an answer for him. Provenza then walked out of the house. Andy followed him. "Flynn, you can't just disappear like that without a trace" Provenza said to him as he was now standing next to their car. Andy looked back at Provenza. "I mean, who can do that?" Provenza added. "Stroh did" Andy said to him quietly. Provenza gave him a look. "What? You asked" Andy said to him. Provenza sighed and then picked up his phone and called the Captain.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 10

Sharon answered her phone as she was done speaking with Andrea and she was now waiting in the electronics room with Buzz next to her. "Yes Lieutenant, please tell me you have something" Sharon said to Provenza. "I'm sorry Captain, I don't bear good news. It seems as the Weston boys have disappeared" Provenza said to her. "What? How could that be?" Sharon asked him. "Both of their cars are in the garage, we searched the house twice and there is no sign of either one of them. There was food left out in the kitchen but no other signs of a struggle or anything for that matter" Provenza said to Sharon. "Okay, then head back Lieutenant" Sharon said to him and then hung up her phone. This case was getting more frustrating every minute. "How does a person disappear into thin air?" Sharon said as she got up and walked out the door.

Sharon headed over to the interview room where Andrea was speaking with Debbie and her lawyer. The two patrol officers were in there with them. "Do you have a minute?" Sharon asked Andrea. "I'll be right back Mr. Jennings and then we will focus on a deal for your client" Andrea said as she got up and walked out with Sharon. "What is it?" Andrea asked her. "Both Eric and his brother have disappeared into thin air it seems" Sharon said to her. "Okay, that changes some things" Andrea said as she went back inside the room to discuss it with Mr. Jennings and Debbie. Sharon went back to her office. Buzz stopped her as she passed electronics. "Uh, Captain, can I ask you a question?" Buzz said to her from behind the monitors. "Of course Buzz" Sharon said as she stepped inside. "What's going to happen to this case then?" Buzz asked. "Well, we will keep it open and hopefully, they slip up and get caught" Sharon said to Buzz. "But isn't it frustrating not to be able to get to a conclusion?" Buzz asked her. Sharon looked back at him and then off to the side and hesitated before answering him. "It is very frustrating, Buzz, but there are some cases that can't be solved right away. You know that" Sharon said to him. Buzz nodded back at her. "Yes Captain, I do know that. Thank you" Buzz said to Sharon as he cleared up his area. "You're welcome Buzz" Sharon said to him and then turned around and went into her office. She saw the patrol officers escort Debbie with Andrea and Mr. Jennings walking behind them leaving the Murder Room to head down to booking. Sharon then sat at her desk and waited for her team to arrive back from Manhattan Beach.

Chief Howard arrived in the Murder Room and looked around but didn't see anyone except for Sharon who was sitting in her office. He walked over to her door and knocked before he entered. "Oh, hello Chief" Sharon said to him. "Captain" Chief Howard said back to her. "What am I going to tell the Mayor and the Chief of Police about this case?" he asked her as he sat down. Sharon sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Tell them that we are doing everything we can to make the city of Los Angeles safe for its citizens, we are still looking for the subjects, and hopefully with other law enforcement agencies assistance, we will find the subjects and bring them to justice" Sharon said to Chief Howard. Chief Howard looked back at Sharon and he was impressed with what he just heard. "Wow Captain, perhaps you should tell them that in the meeting I have with them. That was impressive" Chief Howard said to her. "Oh, no I'm not cut out for that job Chief" she said to him. Just then her team arrived back at the office. She saw them walk in and gave a subtle nod to Andy who was walking back to his desk. Andy saw her in with the Chief and decided to wait until he left before he went inside her office. "Besides, I like being in charge of Major Crimes" Sharon said to him. Chief Howard nodded and stood up. "Okay, well as soon as I am done with this meeting, I am heading to the airport to pick Brenda up. She took a couple of weeks off from her new job and we are spending the holidays here in LA" Chief Howard said to her. "That's wonderful Chief" she said back to him and then he left her office.

Sharon joined her team outside her office. "Okay, everyone I know that it's frustrating that we cannot close this case today" she said as she looked around at her team. "We'll start on the paperwork, Captain" Provenza said to her. "Thank you Lieutenant" Sharon said to him and then turned around to head towards the break room. Andy followed her out and caught up with her in the hallway. "Hey, is everything okay?" Andy asked her. Sharon looked at him as he approached her. "How was he able to vanish into thin air?" Sharon said as she continued to walk towards the break room. Andy held the door open for her as she walked through into the break room. "I don't know" he said as she passed him. Sharon walked over to make herself a cup of tea. Andy was watching her do so as he took a seat at the nearest table to her. "Chief of Police Pope wants me to reconsider putting in for the Chief's position" Sharon said to him as she waited for the water to boil. Andy looked back at her. They had discussed that a while ago and he told her back then that he would support any decision she made. "I thought we discussed that already" Andy said to her. She looked up at him and sighed. "We did, but at his last meeting, he insisted that I put my name in the pool for possible candidates" Sharon said back to Andy.

Andy got up from his seat and went to the counter where she was standing and leaned up against it. He took her hand in his and held it. "Sharon, you know that whatever decision you make regarding this, I will back you up 100 percent" Andy said to her, trying to reassure her as he caressed her hand. "I know, and I appreciate that very much" she said to him as she looked back up at him and smiled. He smiled back at her. "I like where I'm at. I like being in charge of the Major Crimes division. I'm not aspiring to be a chief anymore" Sharon told Andy. "Then tell the Pope that you graciously decline" Andy said to her. She shook her head. "It's not that simple, Andy" she said back to him. He let go of her hand as she poured herself a cup of tea. He took the cup from her and fixed her tea the way she liked it and then handed the cup back to her. "Thank you" she said to him. "When does he want your paperwork in?" Andy asked her as they walked back to the office. "After the first of the year" she said to him as she stopped before entering their office. "Well, that gives us about three weeks to think about it and make a decision then. Sharon, the holidays are coming up, your favorite time of the year. Then we have Matthew's birthday right after that. We will both give it some thought, but right now I want you to enjoy the holidays, you know with your sense of occasion and all" Andy said back to her and gave her his charming smile. "Thank you" she said to him as she smoothed his tie down with one hand while still holding her cup of tea in the other. They entered their office again and started working on the paperwork with the rest of the team.

The afternoon flew by quickly as the team worked diligently on the paperwork for their latest case. Even though they were not able to close it, they still needed to fill in the blanks, so to speak, regarding the events that took place. One by one, the team came in to Sharon's office to drop off their paperwork and Sharon compiled it all into a case folder. Once she received the last of the report from Andy, she placed it all in the file and stamped "Case pending" across the top of the folder and then placed it in the file cabinet behind her desk. Everyone then left for the evening. Andy waited for Sharon to be finished and they left as well, heading over to Matthew's school to pick him up.

Matthew came running out of the school in front of Sharon. "Don't run off Matthew!" she told him and he stopped just short of the car where Andy was still inside. He opened the back door and climbed in. "Hi Andy" Matthew said to him. "Hello Matthew, how was your day?" he asked him as Sharon opened the passenger door and got in. "It was good, we learned about the night sky today in science class, and all of the stars that are up in the sky" Matthew said as he put on his seatbelt. Andy looked over at Sharon to see if she was ready. "All set?" he asked her. "Yes" she said smiling back at him and he drove them to go pick up Moxie. It was a little after 6 by the time they made it over to the doggie day care. Sharon stayed in the car with Matthew while Andy got out to pick up Moxie. "We also learned about the different planets in the solar system and how Earth is the only planet that people can live on right now" Matthew told Sharon as they waited. "That's very interesting Matthew" she said back to him. "I should have asked Santa for a telescope instead of a robot toy. My teacher said that we are going to watch a video tomorrow all about the stars" Matthew said and then Andy opened the back door to let Moxie in the car and then he sat down behind the wheel. "Matthew was just telling me about the stars and planets while you were gone" Sharon told Andy as Matthew was now petting Moxie who was laying across his lap. Andy looked at Sharon before he started the car. He was thinking that maybe they should get him something regarding the solar system. As if she could read his mind and what he was thinking right then. "We'll talk later about it" she said to him and then he drove them home.

They arrived at home and they went inside the house. Matthew ran into the kitchen and Moxie followed him. "No running Matthew!" Andy said to him as he closed the door behind them. "Sorry!" Matthew said back to them and then he went into the bathroom to wash his hands. Sharon waited for Andy in the mud room and she pulled him in for a kiss. "What was that for?" he asked her as they broke apart and she glided her hands down the front of his shirt. "For always being there for me, for protecting me, and comforting me" Sharon said to him as her hands slipped down to his waist. Andy grunted as he pulled her back in for another kiss. Before they could get carried away, Matthew came back in the room. "Can I watch TV before we have dinner?" he asked them not knowing what he had interrupted. Sharon pulled away from Andy's embrace and she headed towards the kitchen. "Sure, honey. Dinner should be ready in a half an hour" she said to him and he went into the family room and put the TV on. Andy took a minute to compose himself before joining Sharon in the kitchen. She was standing at the refrigerator when he entered the kitchen and made his way over to her. He gently caressed her back as he passed her and went to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. "What are you thinking about making for dinner?" he asked her as he dried his hands with a towel. "Well, there's leftovers from last night. Gus made a lot of food for us" Sharon said as she pulled out the casserole dish and placed it on the counter.

About a half hour later, Sharon, Andy and Matthew were all sitting down at the kitchen table enjoying dinner. Matthew was still talking about the solar system and all of the different stars in the sky. "You are really enjoying all of that, aren't you?" Andy asked him as they finished up dinner and he was clearing the table. "Yes, my teacher was talking about a telescope and how that can help you see the stars better" Matthew said as he brought his plate to the kitchen sink. "Thank you Matthew" Sharon said to him as she took his plate and placed it in the sink for him. "Why don't you get started on your homework now" Sharon said to him as he walked back to the table. "Okay" he said as he grabbed his backpack from the mud room and brought it back into the kitchen with him.

After Matthew was all done with his homework, Andy took a look at it while Sharon was in the den working on something. Andy then told Matthew to put his homework away and which he did. Andy then walked towards the den to see what Sharon was doing and Matthew went back in to the family room to watch TV. The door to the den was closed but the nice thing about a glass pane door is you can see inside. Andy walked up to the door and saw Sharon wrapping some gifts. Andy wondered what gifts they were so he gently knocked on the glass. Sharon looked up at him and waved him in. Andy opened the door. "So whose gifts are you wrapping in here?" Andy said to her as he tried to have a look. "Don't worry, none of your presents are in here" Sharon said back to Andy and smiled as she saw him trying to get a peek. "Awe" he said back to her. "All of yours are wrapped already" she said to him, giggling a little bit. "What?" he said back to her. "I haven't wrapped any of yours yet" he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist, trying to distract her. "I know" she simply said to him. He pulled back from her. "Have you been snooping around looking for your presents?" Andy asked Sharon as he gave her a hurt look. "No, I have not done that" she said as she continued to wrap a present. "I know you haven't wrapped any presents yet because I haven't seen any crazy wrapped presents around here" she teased him. "Hey, I thought you liked the way I wrapped presents. It's unique" he said to her. "Oh yes, very unique indeed honey" she said to him and then shooed him away. "Please close the door behind you" she said to him as he left the room.

Andy then went in the family room and found Matthew watching TV there. He was watching Disney's Prep and Landing. "Hey buddy, what are you watching?" Andy said as he sat down next to Matthew. "It's a show about how the elves prep the different houses for Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve" Matthew explained to Andy. "Huh, sounds kind of cool" Andy said back to him and they watched the animated show together. When the show was over, Andy turned off the TV. "Okay Matthew, time to go upstairs, you need to take a bath tonight" Andy said to him as he got up. Matthew reluctantly got up off the couch and slowly walked down the hallway. "But I don't want to take a bath" Matthew said as he went past Sharon in the den and headed for the stairs. Sharon looked at Matthew and then at Andy and she opened the den door slightly. "What's going on?" she asked the both of them. "Matthew is going upstairs to take a bath, isn't that right, Matthew?" Andy said. "Yes, but I don't want to" he said back as he slowly walked to the stairs and then took one stair at a time all the way up to the second floor.

Matthew went in to his room and pulled out some toys to take with him to his bathroom. "How many toys are you bringing in here?" Andy asked him. "Just my trucks and dinosaurs" he said back. Andy picked up his pajamas and brought them in to the bathroom. Moxie followed them in the room. "Okay, but remember you need to also get clean" Andy said to him as he started running the water for his bath. As Matthew was in the tub playing with his toys, Andy was sitting next to him on the toilet seat looking at a magazine. "What did Sharon ask Santa for?" Matthew asked Andy. Andy looked over at him. "Oh I don't really know Matthew" Andy said to him. Matthew continued to play in the tub. "What did you ask Santa for Christmas?" he asked Andy. "Oh, well, I haven't asked him anything yet" Andy said to him. "Why not?" Matthew asked. "Oh, um, because I don't know what to ask him for" Andy said thinking that Matthew would stop with the question. "Well, what do you need?" Matthew asked him. Andy thought for a bit. "I don't really need anything Matthew. I have a house, with the woman of my dreams, and we are sharing our lives with you" Andy said to Matthew. "I have a loving family with my kids and Sharon has a loving family with her kids, whom you will meet in a couple of weeks, and together we have everything that we need" Andy tried explaining to Matthew. Matthew didn't really understand what Andy was trying to explain to him. "Okay buddy, time to get out of the tub and get ready for bed" Andy said to him as he pulled the stopper from the tub.

Matthew was all ready for bed by the time Sharon came upstairs. She peeked in his room and saw Matthew lying in bed and Andy was reading him a story about frogs. When Andy was done reading the story, he turned off the main lights in Matthew's room, leaving a small lamp on for the kid. Matthew then got settled in bed. "Good night Matthew" Andy said to him. "Good night" Matthew said back in a sleepy voice. Andy patted Moxie's head and he closed the door behind him. Andy was now exhausted and he headed for their bedroom to join Sharon. As he walked in their room, he found Sharon sitting up in bed reading one of her books. She had changed her clothes already and was wearing her nightgown, the one that Andy loved. Andy quickly went in the closet and changed into his pajamas and got ready for bed. He then joined Sharon. "What are you reading?" he said to her as he laid back on his side facing her. He was tracing his finger up and down her left leg. "Oh, it's a story based on one of the Hallmark Christmas movies that came out last year" Sharon said to him as she smiled. She enjoyed Andy's little caressing. "Oh really? One of those sappy Christmas movies where strangers fall in love and live happily ever after" Andy said to her as he took one of her hands and brought it up to his lips to kiss it. Sharon closed her book and placed it on her nightstand. She then scooted closer to Andy and kissed him on his lips. He groaned as she moved her hands up around his neck. He pulled her on top of him and they slowly kissed one another, hands caressing each other, and made love to one another.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 11

Two weeks later, it was the day before Christmas Eve and the team were in the office getting ready for the annual Christmas party. The team didn't catch a case since their last one, which still remained opened. There was still no sign of Eric Weston or his brother Charles "Chase" Weston anywhere. It was late afternoon on that Friday as Sharon was sitting in her office. Her kids Ricky and Emily were outside in the Murder room helping set up the tables for the food that Rusty and Gus were picking up for the party. Amy was helping set things up as Julio brought in a big tray of cookies his mom had dropped off for them. Andy walked over to Sharon's office and knocked on it. "Come in" she said as Andy walked in. "I'm going to go pick up Matthew from school now and bring him back here. I am also going to pick up Moxie as well" Andy said to her as she looked up from her report she was writing. "What's that?" Andy asked her as he pointed to the report. "Oh, just a follow up Chief Howard wanted me to send to him regarding our open case. Since he and Brenda already left for Palm Springs yesterday, he said I could just drop it in his office for when he returns next week" Sharon said to Andy. "Okay, well do you need me to pick up anything on the way back here?" Andy asked her. "No, I think Rusty and Gus should be able to take care of all of the food" she said back to him. "Alright, I will be back shortly" Andy said to her and then left her office.

He headed over to Matthew's school and went inside the building towards the after school care program. He then picked up Matthew and they headed over to pick Moxie up from doggie day care. "Where's Sharon at?" Matthew asked as they drove. "She is getting ready for the Christmas party at work, which I am taking you to as soon as we pick up Moxie" Andy explained to him. When Andy pulled up to the doggie day care, both him and Matthew got out of the car and headed inside the building to pick up Moxie. They then got back in the car and Andy drove them all back to the PAB. "Moxie is coming with us to the party?" Matthew asked Andy as Moxie was laying across his lap, happy to see him. "Uh, yes but when we get there, make sure you give Sharon sad puppy dog eyes like I told you so she doesn't get mad about the dog being there" Andy explained to Matthew as he drove back to the office.

They arrived back at the office and Andy, Matthew, and Moxie all rode up in the elevator to their office floor. They entered the Murder Room and Matthew went directly towards Sharon's office. He stood outside her windows and waved to her. Sharon waved back to him and then she came out to greet him. "Hello Matthew" she said as he gave her a hug. "How was school?" she asked him. "It was okay" he said as he looked at the table that had all of the food on it. He placed his backpack down outside by Andy's desk and sat on his chair. Sharon then looked up to see Andy with Moxie by his side talking with Ricky about something. "Andy! What is Moxie doing here?" Sharon said to him. Andy looked over at Matthew and gave him a signal. "What are you doing?" she asked him and then she looked back at Matthew. Matthew then gave her his sad puppy dog eyes. "Please Sharon can Moxie stay for the party?" Matthew said to her. She looked back at Andy and then again at Matthew. "Fine, but I don't want to hear any complaining about Moxie eating the food from the table" Sharon said to them and then she went to help Rusty and Emily sort through the different dishes that the team made. Patrice came and met up with Provenza in the office. She brought a homemade dish of macaroni salad to pass around. Even Lieutenant Cooper stopped by to partake in the festivities of the evening.

Sharon and Andy, with Moxie at his side lying down, were talking with Patrice and Provenza while Matthew was being entertained by Gus telling him stories about space and how the astronauts travel in space exploration. Rusty, Emily, and Ricky were discussing what gifts they had gotten their mom and Andy, but not too loud for anyone to hear. Amy, Lieutenant Cooper, Mike, Buzz, and Julio were talking about the new car Buzz just purchased last week. Everyone was enjoying themselves at the party. The evening went by quickly and they had a toast. "Merry Christmas everyone!" Sharon said to her team. "Merry Christmas Captain" everyone said back to her.

It was getting late and everyone helped clean up the tables and place the food in storage containers. "Please take some home with you" Sharon said to Patrice as she handed her a plate of different goodies that were still around. "Thank you Sharon, this was nice" Patrice told Sharon as she took the plate from her. Patrice and Sharon then looked over at their husbands who were shaking hands. "Try not to get worked up over the next two days, I know it's the holidays and all but don't injure yourself or end up in the hospital" Provenza told Andy. Andy just looked at him and shook his head. "Don't worry, I plan on relaxing with Sharon for the next two days with her family and my family combined at the new house" Andy told Provenza. "Merry Christmas Flynn" Provenza said to him. "Merry Christmas" Andy said back to him as they shook hands. One by one the team left to go home.

Everything was cleaned up and put away in the office. Matthew had fallen asleep on Sharon's couch so Ricky volunteered to carry Matthew down to their car for them. "Thank you sweetie" Sharon said to him as they walked out of her office. "It's no problem Mom" Ricky said back to her. She was glad that her children were accepting of Matthew. Andy gathered up his things and Rusty took Moxie down to the car as well. Emily went with her brothers and Gus followed. That left Andy and Sharon alone in the office. "Are you ready my dear?" Andy asked as he held her door open for her. "Yes" she said back to him as she walked through the door turning off the lights as she did. He gave her a kiss. "Getting Matthew to use his puppy dog eyes on me, very smooth Flynn" Sharon said to him. "I couldn't disappoint him, he really wanted Moxie to come to the party" he said back to her and smiled when she kissed him again. "Can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve already?" Andy said to Sharon as he held her hand and walked to the elevators. "I know, a lot has happened this past year" Sharon said back to him as they rode in the elevator to the parking garage. "You know what the best thing was this year?" he asked her as they stepped out. "What?" she asked him. "Marrying you" he said to her and briefly stopped her and gave her a kiss in the parking garage. She smiled at him and continued walking towards their car and her kids, Matthew, and Moxie. "Do you know what was second best this year?" Andy continued to talk as they walked to the car. "Hmm" she said. "Being able to foster Matthew with you" he said to her. She squeezed his hand in hers and they finally reached their car and everyone else. "What took you guys so long?" Ricky asked them. Sharon and Andy looked at each other. "Oh come on Ricky, can't you see they are looking at each other with lovey dovey eyes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize what took them so long to get down here" Emily chimed in on her brother.

Ricky helped place Matthew in the back seat of their car and Moxie jumped in next to him. "See you guys at home?" Sharon asked her children. "Yes Mom" Emily answered for them and then they headed towards where Rusty parked his car and they all got inside of it and drove off. Andy and Sharon followed them in their car and drove home. Once they arrived at home, Matthew was awake but still groggy. He was able to get out of the car by himself and Andy walked with him and Moxie towards the house. Sharon carried Matthew's backpack and her bag and brought them both inside. "Okay Matthew, I want you to head upstairs, put your pj's on and then go to bed" Sharon said to him and he went upstairs with Moxie following him. Andy was putting some leftover food in their fridge when Ricky and Emily walked in the kitchen. Sharon handed Andy another plate of food to put away. "Mom, we are headed for bed too" Emily said to Sharon. Sharon kissed her children both good night and Emily and Ricky headed upstairs to stay in the guest room. They had gotten an air mattress and both Emily and Ricky were taking turns sleeping on the air mattress and the regular bed that was in the guest room while they were both in town.

Sharon found Andy in the family room looking at the Christmas tree. She came up next to him and gave him a little nudge on his shoulder with her shoulder. He looked back at her and smiled. They hadn't placed any presents under the tree just yet because of Matthew. They didn't want him to get confused since Santa arrives on Christmas Eve. Sharon had the presents wrapped upstairs in their closet. Each person had a different wrapping paper theme so it was easier to determine whose presents go where under the tree. "Is everything all set for tomorrow?" Sharon asked Andy as she led him around to the couch and sat down with him. "Yes" he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him as they sat on the couch. Sharon leaned back and closed her eyes. "Nicole and her family are coming over tomorrow night for dessert and then we are all heading to Midnight Mass" Andy whispered to Sharon. "Hmm, thank you for doing that" Sharon said back to him as she relaxed in his arms. Gus had informed them at the party tonight that he wanted to cook everyone dinner tomorrow night for Christmas Eve. He had a new recipe that he wanted to try out and Sharon had told him that dinner was a wonderful idea.

"You know, we are both going to fall asleep down here as its getting late" Sharon said to Andy as Andy held her in his arms. "I don't want to move right now. Comfy being right here with you." Andy said back to her as he held her tighter to him. "Can I ask you a question?" Sharon asked him. "Hmm" Andy said to her. "Where do you think the Weston brothers went?" Sharon asked him in a serious tone. "I honestly don't know, Sharon" he said to her. "People don't vanish into thin air, but apparently these two did" Andy added. "We should get an alert if they cash the bonds, or if they cross the border, right? So I guess we wait, in the meantime, we enjoy the holidays with family and friends" Andy said to Sharon. "You're right" Sharon said to Andy and then snuggled closer to his neck and kiss him. "Can I get that in writing, please?" Andy teased her and she laughed. "As much as I hate to get up and disrupt the warmness we are feeling with each other, we should go upstairs" Sharon said to him and then she sat up. Andy groaned in defiance but sat up as well. They both made their way upstairs, shutting off the lights in the house as they went up. Andy peeked in Matthew's room and he was fast asleep. He saw Moxie sleeping on his bed as well. He closed the door and then walked over to the guest room where Ricky and Emily were staying. He knocked on the door and were surprised they were still up. He peeked inside the room. "Hey good night guys" Andy said to the both of them. "Good night Andy" Ricky said to him and Emily waved back to Andy. Andy then closed the door behind him and went to join Sharon in their bedroom.

As they both got ready for bed and changed into their pajamas, Sharon walked in to the bathroom as Andy was getting in bed. Sharon then finished up what she was doing and joined Andy in their bed. Slipping the covers over the both of them and she settled her head on his shoulder while her hand laid on his chest. "Are you excited for Christmas?" Sharon asked him quietly. "Oh yes, super excited for Christmas" Andy said back to her in a quiet tone. "Hmm, me too" Sharon said back to him and they both fell asleep as Andy held her close to him.

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 12

It was Christmas Eve morning and the house was quiet. Sharon stirred in her sleep but wasn't awake yet. Andy had moved and propped himself up on his elbow, watching her sleep. She looked so peaceful. He wanted to get an early start today because he wanted to wrap up his gifts he was giving Sharon, her children, Nicole and the grandkids, and of course Matthew. He didn't want to wake her so he slipped out of their bed and quickly went to the closet, his hiding spot for the gifts he had purchased. Andy then carefully went downstairs with the gifts in a duffle bag and a box and went into the den to wrap them. Andy wrapped the telescope he had gotten for Matthew in red and white striped paper. He had gotten better at wrapping gifts over the years but still wasn't as nice as the way Sharon wrapped the gifts. He and Sharon had discussed the telescope idea when Matthew was talking about the stars and planets weeks ago.

He then took out the gift that he had gotten Nicole and Dean, a gift certificate to the local theater to see any Broadway show they wanted. He had a nice small box for it and then wrapped it. Andy and Sharon had gotten a matchbox car set for his grandkids. Sharon told him that she could wrap their gift but Andy insisted on doing it. He got Emily a perfume set that she wanted, which was wrapped by the salesperson at the store he bought it in. He bought Rusty a book to help him with pursuing law, even though Andy hated lawyers. That was easy to wrap. Andy bought Ricky a pair of wireless headphones that he said he wanted and knew Sharon wouldn't buy for him. Last but not least, the gifts he had bought for Sharon. He took the Pandora bracelet box out of the bag and nicely wrapped it for her. Then he took a white envelope and placed two sheets of paper inside with the drawing of two tickets to Emily's upcoming performance in LA. He was surprised Emily had kept the secret while she was here. Sharon was going to be thrilled. He then wrapped the envelope in Christmas paper and placed it on top of the Pandora box that was wrapped. Then he opened the long jewelry box and looked at the necklace he bought her. It was in the shape of a heart and had diamonds around the edge of the heart, the inside of the heart was engraved with the saying 'you've captured my heart, forever'. He wrapped that gift up and everyone was done.

He couldn't believe no one else was up but again, it was 6:15 in the morning. He decided to leave all the presents downstairs in the den and he headed back upstairs. He snuck back in their room, Sharon still sleeping and slipped back in bed with her. She gently stirred again as Andy watched her. He gently traced his finger up her right arm to her shoulder then down again. "Hmm" Sharon said in her sleep. Andy smiled at her and leaned in to give her a kiss. She smiled in the middle of it and started to wake up. She opened her eyes and saw Andy smiling back at her. "Morning sweetheart" he whispered to her. "Morning. What time is it?" Sharon said to him. He glanced over at the clock. "6:25" he said. Sharon groaned and then got him to move back and lie down on the bed. "Why are you up so early?" she asked him as she laid her head on his shoulder and rubbed circles on his chest. "I needed to do a couple of things before you woke up" Andy whispered to her. "What was that?" she asked him. "I had to wrap your gifts and the children's gifts" Andy said to her. "Hmm, I would have helped you do that" Sharon said to him. "I want there to be some surprises" Andy said as he pulled her up to him and kissed her.

An hour later, both Sharon and Andy were up. Andy was already dressed and headed downstairs while Sharon changed into more comfortable pajamas and then joined him downstairs in the kitchen. He was making her a cup of coffee while she sat there watching him. Andy decided that he was going to make breakfast for everyone and started making batter for his famous French toast. Sharon went over to where he was standing at the counter. "What are you making?" she said to him. "I was going to make everyone French toast, eggs, turkey bacon of course, and some fresh fruit to please the health nut" Andy said to her and moved around the kitchen getting the different ingredients out of the refrigerator. Sharon laughed when he called her a health nut. She grabbed his arm and pulled her closer to him. "Listen, just because I want you around me for a long time, doesn't mean I'm a health nut. Besides, it's your doctor that placed you on that diet to begin with" she said to him pulling him in for a kiss. Andy placed what he was holding on the counter by the sink and lifted Sharon so that she was sitting on the island facing him all the while still kissing her. He looked back into her eyes and smiled. "I love you" he said to her. "I love you too" she said back. "Merry Christmas Eve" she whispered to him.

Just then, they heard lots footsteps of someone coming down to join them on the first floor. Ricky and Emily came downstairs followed by Matthew with Moxie. They all made their way in to the kitchen. "Morning Mom, Andy!" Emily said trying to announce their presence as Sharon and Andy pulled apart and Sharon got down from the island counter. Sharon went around to greet Emily and Ricky. "Good morning sweets!" she said to both of them and gave them a kiss on their cheek. "Good morning Matthew" she said to him as he walked by them and sat at the kitchen table. Ricky poured himself a cup of coffee that Andy had made and the four of them sat at the kitchen table while Andy prepared breakfast.

"Did Rusty come home with you guys last night?" Sharon asked them. "No, he spent the night at Gus's apartment" Ricky said to his mother and then turned his attention to Matthew who was sitting next to him. "So Matthew, do you know the story about Santa's angry elf?" Ricky said to Matthew. Matthew looked at him and shook his head. "No, what is it about?" Matthew asked Ricky. "Well, Santa has an angry elf that goes around the North Pole collecting the names of the children who were naughty all year long" Ricky started to tell him. "And then once he is done with the list, he goes into his area of the toy shop and starts to make toys out of coal for the kids on his list" Ricky said and Matthew was listening to every word he was saying. Sharon looked at Ricky and gave him a warning with her eyes. "What Mom?" Ricky said to Sharon. Andy looked over at the four of them at the table and just shook his head as he continued cooking their breakfast. "Ricky, can you set the table please?" Sharon asked Ricky. Ricky stood up and walked to the cabinet. "Fine" he said back to her and got the dishes out and brought them to the table.

"So, Emily anything new with you? I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down with you and talk about things" Sharon asked Emily. Emily looked back at her Mom. "No, nothing is new Mom" she said to her, even though she desperately wanted to tell her Mom about her being able to travel with the ballet company and that they were coming to LA to perform. "Hmm" Sharon said. She suspected something was going on, she just couldn't put her finger on it. Ricky and Matthew were talking about the planets and stars in the galaxy when Andy had brought everything to the table. "Here we are. Merry Christmas Eve everyone" Andy said as he placed the French toast in the middle of the table. "Wow honey, this looks really good!" Sharon said to Andy as he sat down. "Bon Appetite!" Andy said to them and he started passing around the food.

A couple of hours later, Ricky, Emily, and Matthew were in the family room watching A Charlie Brown Christmas video and they were still in their pajamas. Sharon had walked in the room a couple of minutes after they started watching it and sat down with her kids surrounding her on the couch and Matthew was next to Ricky. She was glad Matthew and Ricky were hitting it off and was very happy to be spending the time with them while they were in town. Andy was out in the backyard with Moxie when Rusty drove up in the driveway in his car with Gus. Gus got out and was unpacking some grocery bags from the car. Rusty opened the door to the house. "Hi Lieutenant!" Gus said to Andy as he was carrying a couple of grocery bags into the house. Andy walked over to them. "Hi Gus. You know, you can call me Andy instead of Lieutenant all of the time" Andy said to Gus. "Okay, I thought that since Lieutenant Provenza likes to be called by his rank, that was your rule as well" Gus said to him. Andy chuckled. "No, no, only Provenza likes that. Please call me Andy" Andy said to him. "Okay" Gus said back to him and continued to bring the groceries in from the car. Andy and Moxie followed them inside the house when they were done. "That's a lot of groceries you bought Gus" Andy said to him as he walked in the kitchen. "Yes, well I am trying out this new recipe for tonight's dinner and it calls for a lot of ingredients" Gus said to Andy.

Gus prepared dinner with the help of Rusty and Andy went in search of Sharon and the rest of them. He found all of them in the family room watching TV. Andy went up behind Sharon and leaned down and kissed her on her head. "Gus and Rusty are here. Gus is preparing dinner in the kitchen" Andy said to her. "Already?" Sharon said surprisingly and turned around to look at Andy. "I guess his new recipe takes a while to prepare" Andy said as he shrugged his shoulders. Sharon got up from her position on the couch and made her way in to the kitchen. "Hi Gus, Rusty" she said to them. "Hello Sharon" Gus said to her. "Hi Mom" Rusty said. "I understand that this is a new recipe Gus. I just want to make sure it is heart healthy for Andy as well" Sharon said in her concerned voice. "Oh yes, it is heart healthy Sharon. I purposely made sure of that" Gus said reassuringly to Sharon. Sharon nodded and then left them in the kitchen. She joined Andy in the den as he was looking through the presents. She cleared her throat and Andy looked up at her. She had her arms folded across her body and was staring at him. "What?" he said innocently back to her. "Are you looking for something?" she said to him. "I'm just making sure that everything is here, that's all" he said back to her as he came up to stand in front of her. She reached out and took his hand and led him out of the den, closing the door behind them. "Your presents are not in there" Sharon said back to Andy, giggling. "I'm going upstairs to change my clothes and take a shower" Sharon said to him as she walked them to the stairs. Andy thought about joining Sharon in the shower but with everyone in the house now, he thought better of it. Instead, Andy kissed her on her lips. "Okay, I'll be down here hanging out with the kids" Andy said to her with a mischievous smile. "Don't go searching for your presents, Andy" she said back to him. "I wouldn't dream of it" he said to her. Sharon turned around and went upstairs, shaking her head at him. Andy headed towards the family room.

When Andy walked in to the family room, he found Emily and Ricky watching 101 Dalmatians with Matthew. All of them sat on the couch, Moxie included. "Um since you guys are all here watching Matthew, I'm just going to go upstairs for a couple of minutes" Andy said to Ricky and Emily. "Sure, no problem" Ricky said, not turning around. Andy looked back at all of them. He and Sharon both were truly grateful that all of their children were so accepting of Matthew. Andy then turned around and headed upstairs. When he walked in to their bedroom, he saw Sharon wearing a towel. Andy sighed. "You must have taken a really quick shower" he said to her as he walked towards the bed and sat on the edge watching Sharon go through her routine of getting ready. She turned around when she heard him come in the room. "I thought you were staying downstairs, that's why I didn't take long in there" Sharon said to him as she pulled out the clothes she wanted to wear tonight from their closet. "Ricky and Emily are keeping an eye on Matthew, if you know, you'd want to give me my Christmas present early" Andy said to her as he came up behind her in the closet and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his face in her neck. "Sorry mister, but that's not going to work" Sharon said laughing as she was trying to get dressed without being distracted by Andy. "Fine" Andy said to her and walked away heading back to sit down on the bed. Sharon then closed the door to the closet so she could change without distracting Andy. "Hey!" Andy said as he saw her do that and then he laid down on the bed.

Andy was still sleeping about two hours later and Sharon was sitting in their bedroom on the chair by the window when Matthew came in their room. "What are you doing?" he said to Sharon. "Oh, I was just reading a book while Andy took a little nap" Sharon whispered to him. He looked at Andy who had his arm over his head as he lied on his back. "Why is he taking a nap?" Matthew asked. "Well, because he got up super early to cook us all breakfast" Sharon said back to him and reached out to tousle his hair. "Where's Emily and Ricky?" Sharon asked him. "They are still downstairs talking with Rusty and Gus about something adult" Matthew said to Sharon. "Hmm, well would you like to do something?" Sharon asked him. "Like what?" Matthew said. "Well, we could play a game in your room and let Andy sleep a little longer" Sharon said as she glanced over at Andy. "Okay" Matthew said back to her and then turned around to walk out of their room. "Hey, where are you going?" Andy said as he started to wake up. "I'm just going to Matthew's room to play a game with him, you can sleep for another 40 minutes if you want to, but then you'll need to get up and get ready" Sharon said soothingly to him as she sat on the bed. "Okay" Andy said to her and then he closed his eyes again. Sharon then got up from sitting on the bed and joined Matthew in his room.

Andy woke up again from his nap to the smell of delicious food coming from downstairs. He got out of bed and rubbed his face with his hand and stretched his achy muscles. He then walked out of their room and into the hallway where Moxie was laying across the floor, sleeping as well. Andy then walked to Matthew's room where him and Sharon were still playing the board game Monopoly Jr. "I was just about to come over there and wake you up" Sharon said to Andy as he walked in the room. Andy saw that in the midst of Sharon and Matthew playing the game, somehow Sharon had convinced Matthew to change into nicer clothes for dinner and the festivities that came afterwards. "You look very nice in that sweater Matthew" Andy said to him. "Thank you" Matthew said back and continued to move his token around the board. "I'm just going to go change now" Andy said to Sharon and then he left and returned to their room to get himself ready.

Dinner was bustling with everyone around the dinner table in the dining room. Gus had made a turkey breast with rosemary seasoning from scratch. There was also stuffing that Gus had made with carrots, apples, bread, and onions with a few other side dishes that Sharon had placed at the table. "Everything is delicious Gus!" Emily said as she ate. Matthew had some turkey with a little stuffing left on his plate. "I'm stuffed Mommy" he said out loud to Sharon and everyone paused. Matthew looked around and knew he had let it slip out. He had a shocked look on his face. "Sorry" he said in his said voice. Sharon looked back at Matthew. "That's okay Matthew, you don't need to be sorry. It was just a slip" Sharon said to him as everyone else rejoined whatever conversations they were having. Andy leaned over to Matthew who was sitting next to him. "Hey, you're okay, buddy. Besides, everyone else here has been calling her mom" he whispered to Matthew trying to reassure him. Matthew gave a little smile back to Andy. Sharon and Andy both exchanged looks and then everyone finished dinner.

An hour later, Nicole, Dean, and their step-grandsons arrived for dessert. Matthew was happy to see Colin and Avery, and for that matter, so was Moxie. "Matthew, if you want, Colin and Avery could go up to your room and play for a few minutes while we get things ready here" Sharon said to Matthew and the boys ran upstairs to his room. "I'll go up there and make sure they behave themselves" Dean said and followed them upstairs. Nicole walked in to the kitchen with the dessert she made, rice krispies treats, and placed the dish on the counter. She was helping Sharon arrange the different desserts that they were going to serve tonight. "So Nicole, how was dinner at your mom's?" Sharon asked her. "Oh, it was fine, nothing too crazy" she answered her. "So Dad, did you wrap all of your gifts yet?" Nicole asked him as he was sitting at the kitchen table. "Yes, they are all wrapped. I finished them this morning before everyone was up" Andy said to her as she came over to him and sat down at the table with him.

Everyone went back in to the dining room for the dessert time and all of the boys were seated next to each other. "Please behave yourselves" Nicole said to the three of them and they all nodded back to her. "Of course Mom" Colin said to her. Everyone tried a little bit of all of the desserts from the cannoli's that Gus had brought to the rice krispies to the Christmas cookies that Emily and Ricky had made this afternoon. After dessert was over, Sharon asked Colin, Avery, and Matthew if they wanted to watch a video. "Yes!" all three of them said at the same time. Andy smiled at that and Sharon laughed. "Okay, let's go in to the family room" Sharon said to them and they followed her. Gus, Rusty, Emily, Ricky, and Nicole were all talking with each other in the dining room. Moxie was nudging Andy and he was indicating that he needed to go outside. "Come on Moxie" Andy said as he stood up to take the dog out. Dean stood up as well. "I'll go out with you" Dean said to Andy.

Andy, Dean, and Moxie were out in the backyard, which lit up due to the spotlights that Andy had installed to make it easier to see in the back. "So, do you like living here in this house?" Dean asked Andy. "Oh yes, it's great. The commute to work isn't bad. Actually an improvement for me from my other house. And it's nice having all of this living space" Andy said to Dean. "Your house looks very festive too" Dean said to him. "Oh, that's all Sharon and her sense of occasion. She loves Christmas and loves decorating the home with all of our decorations" Andy said as Moxie was done and they headed back in the house. "Come on, let's go see what video Sharon got the kids watching" Andy said to Dean as they made their way through the kitchen. That's when Andy saw Jack inside their house in the foyer speaking with Sharon and Andy approached them. "Jack, what are you doing here?" Andy said to him as he came up to Sharon's side. "Nice to see you too, Andy. Well, as you know, Sharon and I have two kids with each other and I'm here to see them" Jack said and Andy could smell alcohol on his breath. "I'll go get Emily and Ricky, sweetie" Sharon told Andy and he stayed there staring at Jack.

"You have a lot of nerve showing up here like this, Jack" Andy said to him. Jack just looked back at him with a smug grin on his face. Meanwhile, Sharon found Emily and Ricky in the dining room. "Um, your father is here to see both of you" Sharon said to them and Ricky stood up. "What?" Ricky said back to Sharon. "How did he know where Andy and I live" Sharon asked the two of them. "I told him" Emily said quietly. "Why did you do that?" Sharon asked her. "He wanted to know where I would be staying while I was in town because he offered his place to me again, but I told him I was staying at yours and Andy's new house" Emily said to her mother. This made Sharon a little mad. She did not want Jack to know that they had moved, let alone their new address. "Sorry Mom" she said to her and Sharon shook her head. What was she supposed to do. She still wanted her kids to be in touch with their father, not just at their house. Ricky and Emily made their way to the foyer where Jack and Andy were still at. Andy had his arms folded across his chest when they came in to view. "I'll leave the three of you alone" Andy said to Ricky and Emily who both nodded to say that was okay. Andy then walked away with Sharon and they went to the kitchen.

"Did you know he was stopping by?" Andy said to Sharon as they walked in to the kitchen. "No, I did not. Please calm down sweetie" Sharon said back to Andy as she held his hand. He was leaning up against the island in the kitchen. "It's just, I don't mind him stopping by to see his kids because I know how that goes, but to have the nerve to show up here with liquor on his breath, that's where I draw the line" Andy said to Sharon as she tried calming him more. "I know, this is the Jack that I really despise" Sharon said to him. Andy looked down at the floor and then looked back up at her. "I'm sorry you had to see him like that" Andy said to her in a quieter voice and then pulled her in for a hug.

Jack, Emily, and Ricky went in to the living room where they visited. "Dad, you're still drinking I see" Ricky said to Jack. "Yeah, well I can't seem to kick it yet" Jack said back to him. "Did you drive over here, Dad?" Ricky asked him. "No, no. I took an uber driver over here" Jack said. "I might drink, but I know now that I shouldn't be driving afterwards" Jack said to the two of them. Emily and Ricky both looked at their father as he sat across from them. "Look, I just wanted to see both of you at Christmas time, nothing else. Besides, I'm meeting my girlfriend for a late dinner at Providence in downtown LA" Jack said to them. "Well, thanks for stopping by Dad" Emily said as all three of them stood up and headed back to the front door. Jack pulled out his phone and requested another uber driver. "Merry Christmas, twinkle toes" Jack said to Emily as she gave him a hug. Ricky just shook his hand and that was all he wanted to do.

The front door closed and that alerted Andy and Sharon that Jack must have left. They both walked in to the hallway and saw Emily and Ricky standing at the door. "Is everything okay?" Sharon asked them. "Everything is fine Mom, just why did he have to show up with alcohol on his breath?" Ricky said to Sharon. "I don't know honey" Sharon said to Ricky. They headed back to the dining room to rejoin everyone else in there. Andy peeked out the front door but did not see Jack anywhere. Sharon and Andy then made their way to the family room to check on the boys in there. They were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was Avery's favorite movie to watch at Christmas. Both Sharon and Andy joined them on the couch and sat in the middle, with Colin and Avery on one side of Andy and Matthew on one side of Sharon. They watched the rest of the movie with them.

It was getting close to the time for everyone to leave to head over to Midnight Mass at church. Nicole, Dean, and the boys got their jackets on and headed out. "We'll meet you over there Dad, Sharon" she said to Andy and Sharon as they left. Ricky and Emily got ready and headed over there with Rusty and Gus. Sharon helped Matthew put his jacket on as Andy watched them. "Are you ready?" Andy asked Matthew. "Yes" he said and gave a thumbs up. Andy then placed Moxie in his crate in the kitchen and they left to attend church. The Midnight Mass was crowded and before the mass was celebrated, they had a bell choir play Christmas carols. By the time mass was over, Matthew was asleep and so was Avery and Colin. "Merry Christmas Sharon, Dad" Nicole said to them as they were saying their goodbyes at church before they walked out. "We will see you tomorrow afternoon" Sharon said to Nicole. Both Nicole and Dean were each carrying one of their boys out to the car.

Sharon turned around in church and saw Gus carrying a sleeping Matthew. "I'll put him in your car for you" Gus said to both Sharon and Andy. "Gus, thank you" Sharon said to him and they headed to their car. Gus got Matthew all set in the back seat. Matthew was still sleeping. "Merry Christmas" Gus said to Sharon and Andy before leaving to find everyone else at Rusty's car. Sharon and Andy then drove home. Sharon interlaced her fingers with Andy's right hand as he drove them home. Once they got there, Ricky was still waiting downstairs and helped carry Matthew upstairs into his room. Sharon followed him and made sure Matthew changed in to pajamas for the night. Matthew was still groggy but was able to change his clothes and then he climbed into bed. "What about Santa?" he said quietly to Sharon. "Santa will come but you need to be sleeping first" Sharon said back to him and then tucked him in for the night. Moxie also joined Matthew and fell asleep upstairs after Andy took him out for the night.

Sharon closed the door to Matthew's room and was surprised to see Ricky still in the hallway. "Do you want me to stand watch and make sure Matthew doesn't come out of his room while you and Andy arrange the presents under the tree?" Ricky whispered to his mom. "Thank you" she whispered back to him and smiled. Then she went downstairs and helped Andy place the presents under the tree in the family room. They had arranged the presents by person and each of them had a pile under the tree. Then they arranged the special "Santa" presents at the front of the tree for Matthew and for the rest of the kids too. Sharon had placed Andy's presents from her under the tree too. Andy saw that as he was placing her presents from him under the tree as well. "I will let you unwrap one of your presents Andy, but we need to go upstairs for that" Sharon said to him in a sultry voice. Andy looked around to make sure they didn't miss anything and then both of them headed upstairs. Ricky was still standing in the hallway and gave them the all clear. "Good night" he told them and went into the guest room.

Both Sharon and Andy got ready for bed, but Sharon had a special treat for Andy tonight. She was going to wear a new nightgown and robe set she had bought recently. It was red with candy canes on it and when she came out of the bathroom, Andy was waiting for her as he sat at the edge of their bed, already in his pajamas. "Wow" he whispered to her as she came closer to him. He untied the robe and underneath her robe was a matching candy cane nightgown. The fabric was silk and it felt smooth under Andy's touch. "Merry Christmas" Sharon said to Andy. "Merry Christmas" Andy said back to Sharon. They then fell into bed together, holding each other as they kissed good night.

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone! This is going to be the last chapter in this story. Thanks again for all the reads, follows, and reviews! It is really appreciated.

Chapter 13

Andy woke up first on Christmas Day morning between the two of them. Sharon was still sleeping, her head on his chest and legs intertwined with his. Andy lightly rubbed Sharon's back with his hand. "Sharon" he whispered to her but got no response. "Sharon, wake up" he whispered to her again and gently rubbed circles up and down her arms. She hummed in response and slowly opened her eyes. "What time is it?" she said to him, as she closed her eyes again. He glanced over at the clock on his nightstand. "6 o'clock" he whispered back to her. "Hmm, usually the kids wake me up this early on Christmas morning" she said to him as she shifted her body. Now she was lying flat on her back and Andy was laying on his right side. "The kids are probably already up" he said to her as he continued to rub gentle circles on her arm. "Besides, I want to see if Santa left me a present under the tree last night" he said to her as he moved in closer to kiss her. "Morning my love" he whispered to her after kissing her lips. "Morning" she said smiling back at him. "Have you been a good boy all year long for Santa to leave a present for you?" she asked him as she began to sit up. Andy was already sitting up on the bed. "Oh, very good" Andy answered her and pulled her in for another kiss. Sharon hummed in response.

Interrupting them was a knock on their bedroom door. "Mom?" Emily called out. Andy groaned as Sharon broke their kiss and got out of bed. She then threw on her fluffy robe and opened the door just a little bit. "Good morning sweetie" Sharon said to Emily. "Merry Christmas, Mom" Emily said to Sharon. "Um, everyone is up now. Ricky woke up Matthew and they are both downstairs staring at the tree probably" Emily said to her. "We will be right down, is Rusty up as well?" Sharon asked her. "Yes, he is on his way over with Gus" Emily answered and then Sharon closed their bedroom door. Andy was already getting up and putting a t-shirt and his flannel pants back on. He then grabbed his robe and put that on as well. "Let me go change my pajamas and I'll be ready" she said to him as she passed him in front of their bed as she went to the closet to change.

Both Sharon and Andy then headed downstairs to join the rest of the family by the Christmas Tree. Ricky and Emily were looking over the pile of presents, having added theirs to the mix when they came downstairs. Matthew was sitting on the couch and Moxie was next to him. Matthew was excited as he had never seen so many presents before. Sharon and Andy walked in to the family room. "Ricky and Emily, please sit down and stop looking at all of the presents" Sharon said to her children. "Come on Mom, we do it all the time at Christmas" Ricky said back to her. "You may sit at your pile but that is it" Sharon said to him. Rusty and Gus came through the back door and made their way to join everyone else. Gus carried a bag with him filled with presents as well. "Matthew, you can sit at the front of the tree, it looks like that's where Santa placed your presents" Sharon said to Matthew, encouraging him to sit down closer to the tree. "Did someone take Moxie out this morning?" Andy asked the group. "Yeah, I did" Ricky said to him. "Ok, good" Andy said as he took his spot next to Sharon on the couch.

"Okay, well who should go first?" Emily asked everyone. "We usually start with the youngest. It was Rusty last year, but this year I think Matthew should go first" Ricky said to them. Sharon was completely shocked by Ricky suggesting that and was very pleased. "Go ahead, Matthew. You can open the ones that Santa brought you" Andy said to him and Sharon nodded at him as Matthew looked back at her. "Okay, I'm gonna start with this one" Matthew said as he picked up the wrapped present. As he was opening the gift, Sharon was taking several pictures of him with her phone. Matthew unwrapped the present and screamed with delight. "It's the robot I asked for!" he said excitedly as he showed it around to everyone. Sharon smiled at him as he showed her the robot. "Santa really brought it to me!" he said to her. "Oh, I'm so glad sweetie" she said to him as he hugged her. Matthew then went back to the tree and opened more presents. Sharon looked at Andy who was looking back at her and smiled. Andy smiled back and rubbed his hand on her back. Emily, Ricky, Rusty, and even Gus started opening their gifts.

Matthew was super excited about the telescope Andy had got him. "Maybe tonight we could set it up and look at the stars in the sky" Andy told Matthew and he nodded. All of the gifts were open and it was time for Sharon and Andy to open their presents. Andy wanted Sharon to go first and she opened up Ricky's present. He had got her a new warm sweater cardigan. She had told him a couple of weeks ago that she would like a new, warmer one and he found one in her color. "Thank you honey" Sharon said to Ricky. Sharon then started to open Emily's gift. She had got her mom a gift certificate to her favorite spa and a new spy novel that she had read a review about. "Oh, I love it, thank you" Sharon said to Emily. Rusty handed her his gift. She unwrapped it and it was a boxed set of her favorite perfume. "Thank you Rusty" she said to him. "You're welcome" he said back.

Now it was time for Sharon to open the presents that Andy had got for her. Andy handed her the first gift from him and she unwrapped the box to reveal the Pandora bracelet. She removed it from the fancy box and was looking at all of the different charms he had placed on the bracelet. Each one represented someone or something in her life. "Thank you honey, I love it" she said to him. "Wait, there's more" Andy said to her and handed her the small, long box. She looked back at him with peculiar eyes and started to open it. "Oh my gosh, Andy it's so beautiful!" Sharon said to him, absolutely stunned looking at the necklace he got her. She fingered the heart and looked at the diamonds surrounding the heart. She then turned the heart and saw the inscription that was inside. "You've captured my heart, forever" she said to herself reading the inscription. "Andy" she said barely audible. She was going to cry but Andy grabbed her hand instead and took the necklace from her and placed it around her neck. "There's one more gift to give to you" he said to her and he handed her the envelope wrapped in Christmas paper. She was a little overwhelmed by everything and started opening the last gift. She then opened the white envelope and removed the two pieces of paper inside. She looked at them and then looked up at Andy with a questionable look. "Just read the paper and see what it says" Andy told her. She read it and then realized that is said, in Andy's writing, that they were two tickets to see an upcoming performance of the American Ballet Theater company's production of Beauty and the Beast. She looked back at Andy. "I don't understand, this ticket is in your writing and it says for a performance here in LA. But Emily, you're performing that in New York, aren't you?" Sharon said to both Andy and Emily. "Surprise!" Emily said to her mom. Sharon looked at her daughter. "The ABT is going to be traveling and our first stop is in LA" Emily said to her mom. Sharon screamed with excitement. "Oh my gosh! How long are you going to be here?" Sharon said to Emily. "For about three weeks, with rehearsal and then the performances starting mid-January Mom" Emily said to Sharon and Sharon pulled her in for a hug. She then went over to Andy and gave him a kiss. "Thank you" she said to him. "Merry Christmas" he said back to her with a smile.

"Okay, Andy now it's your turn to open gifts" Sharon said to him and the kids handed him their gifts for him. Ricky got him two tickets to see the Giants vs the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium for the upcoming Baseball season. "Wow, thanks Ricky!" Andy said to him. He then opened up the gift from Emily. It was a LA Dodgers sweatshirt in blue. "I'm sensing a theme here" he said to them. "Thank you" he said to Emily. Next, he opened the gift from Rusty. "Andy, that is from both me and Gus combined" Rusty said to Andy. "Hmm" Andy said as he opened the box and it revealed a Dodgers home jersey. Andy held it up and looked at it. "Wow guys, thanks" he said to Rusty and Gus and then looked over at Sharon. All he could remember was how Sharon looked in the Dodgers jersey the night of their wedding. "Look at the back" Sharon said to him and he turned the jersey around. The back of the jersey said 'FLYNN' with the number 16 on it. "You got it personalized?!" Andy said to Rusty and Gus. "Yes, that was Gus's idea" Rusty said. "Wow!" Andy said. "Why the number 16?" he asked as he placed the jersey back in the box. "For the year, 2016" Rusty said to him. "Well thank you" Andy said to them.

"Okay Andy, here's the first gift I got you" Sharon said to him as she handed him a present. He opened it up and it was a boxed set of his favorite cologne. It was also Sharon's favorite cologne for him. "Ohhh, thank you" he said to her. "I am running low on my current bottle" he added. "I know" Sharon said back to him and smiled. She handed him the next box and he opened it, revealing two pairs of suspenders with matching ties to go with them and two dress shirts that matched as well. "Thank you sweetheart" he said to her as he placed the lid back on the box. "Wait there's more" Sharon said to him and then handed him a big, flat gift. He took the present from her and opened it, revealing a framed blueprint of Dodgers Stadium. "Thank you" he said to her. "Do you like it?" Sharon asked him. "Oh, absolutely! I'll hang it in the den" Andy said to her as she moved closer and kissed him.

She then handed him another box. Andy looked back at her as he took the box and shook it. "Don't shake it Andy" she said to him, giggling. Andy opened the box to reveal a leather charging station valet with his initials 'AMF' engraved on it. Andy was speechless as he looked it over. "It's an organizer for your all of your accessories, plus you can charge all of your devices on it" Sharon explained to him. "Now you have a place to keep all of your things instead of letting them lay haphazardly across the dresser" Sharon added. "Thank you" he said to her as he smiled at her. She then handed him a smaller box. "What's this?" he asked her. "I got you one more thing, just open it" she said to him as he looked back at her. The small box revealed a leather bracelet with a small silver medallion in the middle. Andy looked at the medallion and it was engraved with the saying 'Until the end of time' on the front side. The back side had both of their names on it. It was the style that Andy liked and he had mentioned something to Sharon when he saw it in a jewelry store about how much he liked it. "You got it" Andy said to her. "Yes, and I had it engraved" Sharon said back to him. "Thank you Sharon" he said to her. "You're welcome" she said back to him.

Matthew then stood up and brought two boxes over to Sharon and Andy on the couch. "Matthew wanted to get you guys a gift so while you both were out working and we watched him, we made these special for the both of you" Rusty said to both Sharon and Andy as Matthew handed each of them a box. "Open it" Matthew said to them and they did. Inside the box was a mug that Matthew had designed for them. "Oh Matthew, thank you so much. You didn't have to get us anything, sweetie" Sharon said to him. "I wanted to" Matthew said as he shrugged his shoulders. "And Rusty and Gus helped me" he added.

Andy leaned back on the couch and Sharon was at his side and did the same. They watched everyone look over the gifts that they received. Ricky was trying out his new headphones that Andy had bought for him. Emily was reading the book her mom bought her. Rusty was reading the law book from Andy. Gus tried on the new sweater from Rusty. Matthew was playing with a set of matchbox cars that Ricky got for him so they could both play cars, one of Ricky's favorite childhood activities. Moxie was chewing on a new bone. Sharon sighed as she looked around. "Merry Christmas" Andy whispered to her. "Merry Christmas" she whispered back to him. He kissed her on her cheek and then got up off of the couch. "Where are you going?" she asked him. "To get started on breakfast for everyone" Andy answered her and then headed towards the kitchen. Sharon then leaned back on the couch and absorbed the Christmas spirit in her family.

After breakfast was over, Andy went upstairs and changed his clothes to a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and then came back downstairs. Sharon was in the kitchen cleaning up the dishes. All of the children retreated back in to the family room. Emily took her gifts up to the guest room and got ready for the rest of the day. Gus left for his apartment so that he could get himself ready for work as the restaurant he worked at was opening for dinner later on in the day. "Can you help me build this Rusty?" Matthew asked Rusty as he brought his new Lego set that Rusty and Gus got him over to Rusty. "Sure" Rusty said as he took the Lego Police Station box from him and opened it. They decided to build it on the floor. Andy was in the den trying to hang his new frame when Sharon came up behind him. She was looking at him trying to measure where to hang his new picture. "Do you need any help?" she asked him as she rubbed his back. Andy turned around and placed the pencil he had behind his ear and put the measuring tape down on the desk. "You could hand me my drill and those two screws" he said to her as he pointed to the drill on the desk. She handed him his tools but not before pulling him in for a kiss. "How long did you know that Emily was coming to LA to perform?" she asked him as they broke their kiss. "A couple of months" he whispered to her as he looked her in her eyes. "A couple of months!" she said as she swatted his chest and he started to laugh. "What? She wanted to surprise you!" Andy said back to her as he took the drill from Sharon and hung up his picture.

The afternoon flew by and Nicole, Dean, and the boys came over for an early dinner. Colin and Avery were both excited about the present that Andy and Sharon had bought them. Nicole and Dean were grateful for a chance to spend an evening at a Broadway show. Everyone enjoyed the dinner that Sharon had made and also the leftover desserts from last night. "Well, it's getting late and judging from everybody who is sleeping on the couch, we should get going" Nicole said to both Andy and Sharon. "I'll walk you guys out" Andy said to Nicole and picked up the bag that contained their presents. Dean, Nicole, and the two boys walked back to their car in the driveway. Andy handed Nicole the bag after she got the boys in the car. "Thank you for everything, Dad" she said to him as she gave him a hug. "You're welcome, sweetheart. Have a good night" he said back to her and then headed back in the house.

Rusty woke up from being on the couch and then headed towards the hallway where Sharon was standing watching Nicole and Dean leave. "I'm going to head back to my place" he said to her. "Okay sweetie, have a good night and thank you for your gift today" Sharon said and she gave him a hug. He then headed out back towards his apartment. "We are heading upstairs too" Ricky said to his mom as he was bringing a sleepy Matthew up with him. "Thank you" she said as she called up the stairs to him. Emily was still in the family room when Andy came back in the house. He locked the front door and headed towards the kitchen to take Moxie outside one last time. Sharon came in the family room and woke up Emily, who had dozed off with the rest of them. "You're going to get a stiff neck laying like that" Sharon told Emily who woke up and smiled. "I'm glad you like your gifts Mom" she said to her as she got up from the couch. She looked around the room. "Everyone left and is heading to bed" Sharon said to her. Emily hugged Sharon. "Good night Mom" Emily said and then headed upstairs herself.

Sharon was cleaning up the last of the items that were left out and placed the telescope that Andy had got Matthew back in the den. They both had gone out earlier with Avery, Colin, and Dean to look at the stars. Matthew was so excited about it. Andy came back inside the house with Moxie and locked up the back door. Moxie went upstairs while Andy helped Sharon clean up a little. "Thank you for a wonderful Christmas today" Sharon said to Andy. "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself" Andy said back to her. They turned off the kitchen lights, leaving just a light on over the sink and then headed upstairs themselves to get ready for bed. As Andy was in the bathroom, Sharon was sitting back on the bed when Andy's phone rang. Andy peeked his head out of the bathroom. "Who could be calling this late at night?" Sharon asked him as she reached over for his phone. "Only one person I can think of, and we are not supposed to be on call tonight" he said as he came over to her. They saw Provenza's name flash on the screen of his phone. Andy reluctantly answered his phone.

"Hello?" he said to Provenza. "Hey, I'm not catching you at a bad time, am I?" Provenza said to him. "Uh, no, just getting ready for bed that's all. Tell me we don't have a case, do we?" Andy asked him. "No, god no, we don't have a case. I was just calling you to see how your Christmas was" Provenza said to him. "How many drinks have you had, and where is Patrice?" Andy said back to his friend. "Geeze Flynn I'm just asking a question here" Provenza said. "Okay, okay calm down. Our Christmas was very nice. How was yours with Patrice?" Andy said to him and then they spoke for about ten minutes as Sharon started to read her new spy novel she received from Emily. Andy hung up from Provenza and then joined Sharon in bed. "What did he want?" Sharon asked him as she settled into his embrace as they laid together. "He wanted to know how my Christmas was" he said back to her as he settled into the bed. "And, what did you tell him?" she asked him. "I told him I had the best Christmas ever" he said to her and they kissed. She smiled back at him when they broke apart for air and they both settled in and went to sleep.

The End


End file.
